NSSP Update – January 2021
A Technical Newsletter for the NSSP Community of Practice | January 2021
The National Syndromic Surveillance Program issues NSSP Update monthly to share the latest Community of Practice activities, technical and program updates, and ways in which syndromic surveillance is improving public health.
Query Available to Help Identify Emergency Department Visits after Vaccination
The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines heightens the need for situational awareness after people are vaccinated. Here’s how public health can use syndromic surveillance to identify possible side effects. Read more.
COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
Is it time to join yet?
Community workgroups are rethinking what’s possible for syndromic surveillance. They’re standardizing data for comparison across health jurisdictions, assessing completeness of race and ethnicity data, and using new statistical software to detect clusters (think “opioid use”).
Be part of the community in 2021. Read more.
TECHNICAL UPDATES
Use RStudio to Share Projects
Project sharing in RStudio just got easier. Use RStudio to access and analyze project data. View and query multiple databases and data tables. Here are the helpful tips to follow
Developing Syndrome Definitions
NSSP staff collaborates to develop and improve syndrome definitions.
Three new syndrome definitions have been added to ESSENCE to support the COVID-19 response: CDC Vaccine-Associated Adverse Events v1, ILI CCDD Neg Coronavirus DDv1, and ILI Syndrome Neg Coronavirus DD v1. Factsheets will be added to the NSSP Community of Practice Knowledge Repository.
Monthly National-level Free-text ESSENCE Queries
Analysts can exercise a high level of customization by using free-text queries. They can quickly code free-text queries and rapidly respond to outbreaks, disasters, and health events that unfold. These word clouds capture free-text queries from a national perspective.
NSSP Participation Map
NSSP is exploring how to better communicate the coverage provided by syndromic surveillance emergency department (ED) data. This map shows U.S. counties with emergency care facilities that participate in NSSP. Data will be published quarterly.
This will replace the measure based on the proportion of ED visits captured.
TECHNICAL UPDATES
Preparing for the New Year
NSSP onboarded more facilities in 2020 than prior years, improving participation for syndromic surveillance. ▪ Yes, you CAN get the free-text data from the Clinical Impression field. ▪ The updated NSSP Data Dictionary includes new data elements. Read more.
| January 13 | Race and Ethnicity Data Quality Improvement Workgroup; 3:00–4:00 PM ET |
| January 15 | Data Quality Subcommittee Call (Monthly); 12:00–1:00 PM ET |
| January 15 | NSSP Vendor Patches in Testing and Development Environments; 12:00–8:00 AM ET |
| January 17 | NSSP Vendor Patches in Onboarding and Production Environments; 12:00–8:00 AM ET |
| January 19 | NSSP Community of Practice Call (Monthly); 3:00–4:30 PM ET |
| February 3 | Syndrome Definition Subcommittee Call; 1:00–2:00 PM ET |
| February 5 | Syndromic Surveillance and Public Health Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Subcommittee Call (Monthly); 2:00–2:45 PM ET |
| February 10 | Race and Ethnicity Data Quality Improvement Workgroup; 3:00–4:00 PM ET |
| February 12 | Data Quality Subcommittee Call (Monthly); 12:00–1:00 PM ET |
| February 16 | NSSP Community of Practice Call (Monthly); 3:00–4:30 PM ET |
| March 3 | Syndrome Definition Subcommittee Call (Monthly); 1:00–2:00 PM ET |
| March 5 | Syndromic Surveillance and Public Health Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Subcommittee Call (Monthly); 2:00–2:45 PM ET |
| March 10 | Race and Ethnicity Data Quality Improvement Workgroup; 3:00–4:00 PM ET |
| March 12 | Data Quality Subcommittee Call (Monthly); 12:00–1:00 PM ET |
| March 16 | NSSP Community of Practice Call (Monthly); 3:00–4:30 PM ET |
View more calendar details at the NSSP Community of Practice.
