NSSP Update – July 2021
A Technical Newsletter for the NSSP Community of Practice | July 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.
White House Briefing Uses NSSP Data to Show Impact of Extreme Heat on Public Health
Record-breaking heat waves pose a public health threat to thousands of Americans, particularly in disadvantaged or vulnerable communities. For federal agency leaders looking for solutions, NSSP data show the severity of the problem. Read more.
COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
Community Discusses “Real Water Public Health Investigation”
The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) announces winner of Presidential Priorities Award at 2021 CSTE Virtual Conference. New content in Knowledge Repository includes meeting recordings and How to Use RStudio with ESSENCE APIs, updated to include Rnssp package. Read more.
HOW NSSP WORKS ACROSS CDC
CDC Launches Heat & Health Tracker
Tracker uses syndromic data to display emergency department visits associated with heat-related illness. These actionable data can inform public health messaging. Go to Tracker.
HOW NSSP WORKS ACROSS CDC
Syndromic Surveillance of Vaccine-associated Adverse Events in U.S. Emergency Departments
Syndromic surveillance can supplement existing vaccine safety monitoring systems. This article in Vaccine makes a case for integrated surveillance. If data feeds to NSSP are in place, syndromic surveillance can readily collect new data without placing additional demands on data-collection systems.
MMWR
Emergency Department Visits for Suspected Suicide Attempts Among Persons Aged 12–25 Years Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic—United States, January 2019–May 2021
Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-Based Epidemics (ESSENCE): Overview, Components, and Public Health Applications
ESSENCE is adaptable to everyday needs and to emerging high-consequence health events. Learn about its novel architecture.
Developing Syndrome Definitions
NSSP works with health departments and CDC programs to develop and improve syndrome definitions. Also see the NSSP Community of Practice Knowledge Repository.
TECHNICAL UPDATES
New R Resource Package Supports Data Analytics
We’re pleased to introduce Rnssp, a robust interface that simplifies code and makes it easy to read.
NSSP Participation Increases
At least 71% of the nation’s emergency departments contribute data to NSSP. That’s more than 6,000 health care facilities! Here’s the latest map of participating U.S. counties.
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.
July 16 | Data Quality Subcommittee Call (Monthly); 12:00–1:00 PM ET |
July 20 | NSSP Community of Practice Call (Monthly); 3:00–4:30 PM ET |
July 20 | NSSP Vendor Patches (Testing and Development); 12:00–8:00 AM ET |
July 22 | NSSP Vendor Patches (Onboarding and Production); 12:00–8:00 AM ET |
July 22 | NSSP–ESSENCE User Group (Monthly); 3:00–4:00 PM ET |
July 27 | Data Sharing Workgroup Call (Monthly); 3:00–4:00 PM ET |
August 4 | Syndrome Definition Subcommittee Call (Monthly); 1:00–2:00 PM ET |
August 6 | Syndromic Surveillance and Public Health Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Subcommittee Call (Monthly); 2:00–2:45 PM ET |
August 9 | NSSP Community of Practice Core Committee Call (Monthly); 1:00–2:30 PM ET |
August 10 | NSSP R User Group Call; 2:00–3:00 PM ET |
August 11 | Race and Ethnicity Data Quality Improvement Workgroup (Monthly); 3:00–4:00 PM ET |
August 13 | Data Quality Subcommittee Call (Monthly); 12:00–1:00 PM ET |
August 24 | Data Sharing Workgroup Call (Monthly); 3:00–4:00 PM ET |
August 26 | NSSP–ESSENCE User Group (Monthly); 3:00–4:00 PM ET |
View more calendar details at the NSSP Community of Practice.