Technical Updates

New Syndrome Definitions Added to ESSENCE

• CDC Broad Acute Respiratory DD v1
  This query identifies emergency department (ED) visits with diagnostic codes that are associated with a broad range of acute respiratory illnesses. The query includes codes for specific respiratory infections (e.g., influenza, Respiratory Syncytial Virus [RSV]) and for general respiratory illness such as cough or pneumonia.
  Collaborator: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases

• CDC Cocaine Overdose v1
  This query can help state, local, tribal, territorial, and federal public health practitioners monitor ED visits for suspected cocaine overdose using syndromic surveillance data.
  Collaborator: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

• CDC Unintentional Drowning v1
  The purpose of this query is to identify initial visits in EDs and ambulatory healthcare settings for unintentional drownings.
  Collaborator: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

Onboarding Updates

The NSSP onboarding team is working with Northern Mariana Islands to onboard facilities and aims to have data from this third U.S. territory in the staging environment by early August.

Publication Updates

The Quick Start Guide to Using the Access & Management Center Data Access Rules has been updated to describe changes to the user interface (e.g., how to delete/suspend rules, work with new data sources, and use optional fields to fine tune how rules are applied to users and groups). The quick start guide has just been posted on the NSSP Technical Resource Center’s Publications and Standards webpage. This refresh describes features added after AMC version 1.5.4.

Mortality Data Update

NSSP’s use of mortality data is still in its infancy. NSSP health scientists are doing preliminary analyses such as comparing trends of health conditions (using ICD-10 codes only) with multiple data sources to get insight into how NSSP data compare with other mortality data sources. They are also looking at the timeliness of key fields (ICD-10 code and Literal Cause of Death) to understand when these fields are populated and the death records finalized.

Currently, six public health jurisdictions actively submit mortality data. Site personnel in these jurisdictions can view their mortality data in the Daily Site Processing Summary Reports. The reports for sites that do not submit data will include this section with a note that mortality data have not been received.

To learn more about onboarding your site’s mortality data, please contact NSSP at nssp@cdc.gov for assistance.