Coming Soon: New EpiCenter Enhancements

Health Monitoring System’s EpiCenter system has long been an industry leader in syndromic surveillance. This summer, our developers have been hard at work on some exciting future EpiCenter enhancements. Here is a preview of what’s in store in the coming months for EpiCenter.

Enhanced Observation Analysis

As Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems become more and more sophisticated, a greater breadth of data elements are becoming electronically available, including observations. One of the items currently in development here at HMS is the ability to process any observation data that a sender is able to provide. Having the ability to include things like blood pressure, heart rate, and height and weight in surveillance presents new opportunities for data analysis that will provide public health with more in-depth insight into the health of the community.

Triage Notes

Health Monitoring Systems is also working on incorporating triage note data into EpiCenter. Research at the University of North Carolina has indicated that triage note analysis can enhance the specificity and usefulness of chief complaint surveillance. The study noted that the inclusion of triage notes data in a provider’s syndromic surveillance data feed resulted in a fivefold improvement in the ability to detect certain conditions. Our research into this subject has shown that triage notes can provide a much clearer picture of a particular patient’s condition, and is an excellent supplement to the existing data in EpiCenter, which includes a patient’s chief complaint, ICD-9 or ICD-10 codes, and discharge disposition.

As always, we look forward to continuing to provide innovative solutions for population health surveillance. More details on Enhance Observation Analysis and Triage Notes will follow soon.