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First published June 4, 2003 as JAMIA PrePrint; doi:10.1197/jamia.M1345
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 2003;10(5):399-408
© 2003 American Medical Informatics Association

A more recent version of this article appeared on September 1, 2003
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Submitted on February 19, 2003
Accepted on May 13, 2003

Technical Description of RODS: A Real-time Public Health Surveillance System

Fu-Chiang Tsui PhD1*, Jeremy U. Espino MD1, Virginia M. Dato MD, MPH2, Per H. Gesteland MD, MS3, Judith Hutman, and Michael M. Wagner MD, PhD1

Affiliation of the authors: 1 University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA; 2 Public Health Physician, Pennsylvania Public Health Department, Harrisburg, PA; at the time of the research and activities discussed in this article, Dr. Dato was employed at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA; 3 University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Intermountain Health Care, Salt Lake City, UT

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

This paper describes the design and implementation of the Real-time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance (RODS) system, a computer-based public health surveillance system for early detection of disease outbreaks. Hospitals send RODS data from clinical encounters over virtual private networks and leased lines using the Health Level 7 (HL7) message protocol. The data are sent in real time. RODS automatically classifies the registration chief complaint from the visit into one of seven syndrome categories using Bayesian classifiers. It stores the data in a relational database; aggregates the data for analysis using data warehousing techniques; applies univariate and multivariate statistical detection algorithms to the data, and alerts users of when the algorithms identify anomalous patterns in the syndrome counts. RODS also has a Web-based user interface that supports temporal and spatial analyses. RODS processes sales of over-the-counter healthcare products in a similar manner, but receives such data in batch mode on a daily basis. RODS was used during the Winter 2002 Olympics and currently operates in two states-Pennsylvania and Utah. It has been and continues to be a resource for implementing, evaluating, and applying new methods of public health surveillance.




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