Influenza > Surveillance Data > Kaiser Syndromic Surveillance

Kaiser Permanente Northwest: Respiratory Illness Syndromic Surveillance and Influenza-like Illness Pilot Project

• Background
• Case definition
• Reporting and forms
• Surveillance data

Background

The Center for Health Research of Kaiser Permanente Northwest and the Oregon Public Health Division, Acute and Communicable Disease Prevention Program are conducting two projects to track outpatient visits related to acute respiratory illness.

The first, a "syndromic surveillance project" for respiratory illness began in October 2004. The results of this population-based surveillance are posted each week on this web site.

The second, an "influenza-like illness pilot project", begins October 2009. Two respiratory specimens are collected from patients with clinical symptoms of influenza like illness who visit participating providers. The specimens are tested for influenza and, if positive, sent to the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory for subtyping. The results of this pilot project are sent to the CDC and posted on this web site.

Kaiser Permanente Northwest provides health care for 340,000 Oregonians and another 130,000 people living in southwest Washington. Most Kaiser members live in Clackamas, Clark (Washington), Marion, Multnomah, and Washington counties. Since Health plan members avoid out-of-pocket expenses by seeking their health care at a Kaiser facility rates of illness calculated from Kaiser records closely approximate population-based incidence; the Kaiser electronic medical record makes analysis of this data possible shortly after it is collected.

Reporting

Reporting weeks correspond to the CDC MMWR reporting week of Sunday through Saturday. The 2009-10 "flu surveillance season" begins with week 40, which ends October 10, 2009.

Case definition

For the syndromic surveillance project, outpatient cases of respiratory illness are defined as patients with ICD-9 diagnoses codes 460-466 (acute respiratory infection) and 480-487 (pneumonia and influenza).

For the influenza-like illness pilot project, cases are defined as patients reporting fever and cough or sore throat.

Surveillance data

Influenza-like illness in Kaiser NW facilities:

• Syndromic Surveillance Data 2006-10 (pdf)
• Influenza-like Illness Pilot Project Data 2009-10. Coming soon.