BioSense

Article summary

BioSense is a program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that tracks health problems as they evolve and provides public health officials with the data, information and tools they need to understand developing health events. The system uses reports from local hospitals to conduct syndromic surveillance and identify trends in disease. The system began development in 2003. Its intended purpose was as an integrated nationwide health surveillance system to catch disease outbreaks and bioterrorism events such as the anthrax scare were key motivations for its development. It has faced criticism from congress and local health authorities over its cost and utility. Moreover, early versions of the system lacked uptake in part due to reluctance of hospital leaders to provide information directly to the government. Regardless, these systems have proved useful in monitoring the health effects of natural disasters, widespread outbreaks and monitoring epidemiological data on a national scale. More recently the system has also been used to monitor the effects of lifestyle such as vaping induced acute lung injuries. Following these critiques, efforts have been made to improve BioSense. By integrating local and state-level information, CDC aims to integrate (i.e., multistate) and national levels and improve BioSense's utility.…

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