Automated Syndromic Surveillance for the 2002 Winter Olympics
- Per H Gesteland, MD,
- Reed M Gardner, PhD,
- Fu-Chiang Tsui, PhD,
- Jeremy U Espino, MD,
- Robert T Rolfs, MD, MPH,
- Brent C James, MD, MStat,
- Wendy W Chapman, PhD,
- Andrew W Moore, PhD,
- Michael M Wagner, MD, PhD
- Affiliations of the authors: University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (PHG, RMG, RTR, BCJ); Intermountain Health Care, Salt Lake City, Utah (PHG, BCJ); The RODS Laboratory, Center for Biomedical Informatics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (F-CT, JUE, WWC, MMW); Utah Department of Health, Salt Lake City, Utah (RTR); Department of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (AWM), USA
- Correspondence and reprints: Reed M. Gardner, PhD, School of Medicine, RM AB193, 50 North Medical Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84132; e-mail: <reed.gardner{at}hsc.utah.edu>.
- Received 28 February 2003
- Accepted 14 May 2003
Abstract
The 2002 Olympic Winter Games were held in Utah from February 8 to March 16, 2002. Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and the anthrax release in October 2001, the need for bioterrorism surveillance during the Games was paramount. A team of informaticists and public health specialists from Utah and Pittsburgh implemented the Real-time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance (RODS) system in Utah for the Games in just seven weeks. The strategies and challenges of implementing such a system in such a short time are discussed. The motivation and cooperation inspired by the 2002 Olympic Winter Games were a powerful driver in overcoming the organizational issues. Over 114,000 acute care encounters were monitored between February 8 and March 31, 2002. No outbreaks of public health significance were detected. The system was implemented successfully and operational for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and remains operational today.
Footnotes
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This work was supported in part by grants 2 T15 LM07124, GO8 LM06625-01, and T15 LM/DE07059 from the National Library of Medicine; contract no. 290-00-0009 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; and Cooperative Agreement Number U90/CCU318753-02 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of CDC. The authors thank the RODS Laboratory for their generous donation of RODS. The authors also thank the following for their individual contributions: from IHC: Stanley Huff, Morris Linton, Marzena Hohn, Noel Santamore, Dave Williams, and Mike Noble; from the University of Utah: Nancy Staggers, Jim Livingston, James Haisley, Kris Lundell, Gary Vandertoolen, Young Lee, and Kristy Brady; from the University of Pittsburgh: Theresa Colechia, Hassan Karini, Xiaoming Zeng, Oleg Ivanov, John Dowling, and Yan Yan Lui; from UDOH: Robert Rolfs and Christine Barton; from Davis County Health Department: Paula Johnson and Lewis Garrett; from Salt Lake Valley Health Department: Melissa Stevens, Ilene Risk and Dagmar Vitek; from Summit County Health Department: Sally Kershisnik and Steve Jenkins; from Utah County Health Department: Lynn Flinders and Joseph Miner; from Wasatch City-County Health Department: Janet Shelton and Phil Wright; from Weber-Morgan Health Department: Claudia Price and Evan Nelson; from SEIMENS Medical Systems for the Utah-RODS network: Dennis Matyas, Dot Power, and Gary Hardel; ESRI for assisting with the geographical information systems.
