Ambulatory Care Surveillance

Farzad Mostashari spoke this morning about the opportunity presented by Meaningful Use for ambulatory care surveillance. This resonated with our staff. Meaningful use has presented an opportunity for public health to improve surveillance with a willing partner.

Not-so-coincidentally, Health Monitoring Systems has been working on understanding the value behind ambulatory care surveillance.  We are in the process of conducting a demonstration project on over 100 offices.

And here is our first insight — we don’t think public health needs anymore anomalies, alerts, alarms, notifications, or passenger pigeons of doom.   Ambulatory care presents an excellent additional layer to electronic surveillance, adding more depth and richness to the information available.

So, what should be done with it?  Let me hear your thoughts below and we will be updating the blog with ours moving forward.

EpiCenter Helps To Pinpoint Cause of Outbreaks

November, 2011 — This fall, listeria food poisoning from tainted cantaloupes resulted in 29 deaths across the United States—an event that WebMD called the “deadliest listeria outbreak in U.S. history.”

Read more