April 7, 2008

The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) has one of several public health surveillance systems that contribute to BioSense (www.cdc.gov/biosense), the national public health surveillance program hosted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This public health surveillance system monitors and tracks data that are routinely collected from hospitals and healthcare facilities. By tracking information based on patient complaints or symptoms, the computerized systems can help to identify unusual occurrences of illness in a patient population.

More than 50 healthcare facilities within Michigan are currently providing data for biosurveillance. MDCH sends real-time hospital data that includes anonymous patient information and chief medical complaints to BioSense. The data is then used to detect and assess possible outbreaks or other public health threats.

"Our participation in BioSense has helped to improve our capacity in other areas such as immunizations and biosurveillance for Michigan," said Jim Collins, Manager of Surveillance and Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Michigan Department of Community Health. "The process of providing data to BioSense has resulted in enhanced communications with our data providers throughout the state."

Michigan also employs a Real-time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance (RODS) based system to gather syndromic data such as respiratory or gastrointestinal illnesses. Access to this data provides an opportunity for Michigan public health officials to evaluate the best way to use the information in each system and define best practices regarding the use of syndromic surveillance within the state. Using RODS and BioSense together gives Michigan a more complete picture of emergent conditions in the state.

BioSense supports public health in facilitating rapid and coordinated responses to public health emergencies. BioSense uses existing real-time healthcare information to help state, local, and federal health officials quickly monitor, detect, and coordinate response and recovery efforts for emerging health outbreaks like influenza.

The RODS Laboratory is a computer-based public health surveillance research laboratory located at the University of Pittsburgh, Department of Biomedical Informatics.

For more information about the BioSense program, please visit www.cdc.gov/biosense or email BioSenseUsers@cdc.gov. Information on Michigan's communicable disease surveillance activities can be found at www.michigan.gov/mdss or by contacting the Communicable Disease Division of the MDCH at 517-335-8165.