NSSP Update – February 2023

NSSP Update

A Technical Newsletter for the NSSP Community of Practice | February 2023

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.

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COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE UPDATES

Meeting Highlights

Quick Links Policy for Federal Access to NSSP Data ▪ Report-Outs ▪ Reminders and Announcements

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KNOWLEDGE REPOSITORY

New How to Use RStudio with NSSP–ESSENCE APIs Posted in KR

Session Attribute IDs ▪ APIs to Pull Facility-Level Metrics ▪ Resources for Machine Learning for Text Analysis and Natural Language Processing

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DATA QUALITY CORNER

How Data Quality Filters Work

Data filtering affects data quality. This explanation about NSSP–ESSENCE filters and filter years will help you control for which facilities are included in the analyses.

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TECHNICAL RESOURCE CENTER

Job Aids Consolidate Resources and Streamline Query Development

The Ultimate Guide for Site Administrators and Query Development: Community and Technical Resources includes many “best of” syndromic surveillance resources and practices.

Jan 2022 ESSENCE Word Cloud

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.

Jan 2022 ESSENCE Word Cloud

Developing Syndrome Definitions

NSSP works with health departments, CDC programs, and others to develop and improve syndrome definitions. Here is a list of the syndromes being worked on now.

Mark Your Calendar

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The NSSP CoP Call Calendar lists the monthly NSSP Community of Practice call and subcommittee/group meetings. The CoP Call Calendar is maintained by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE).
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The monthly patching schedule for Testing/Development and Onboarding/Production environments is posted in Technical Updates.