The Frontlines of Medicine Project: A proposal for the standardized communication of emergency department data for public health uses including syndromic surveillance for biological and chemical terrorism

• Published in: Annals of emergency medicine Vol. 39; no. 4; pp. 422 - 429
• Main Authors: Barthell, Edward N., Cordell, William H., Moorhead, John C., Handler, Jonathan, Feied, Craig, Smith, Mark S., Cochrane, Dennis G., Felton, Christopher W., Collins, Michael A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Mosby, Inc 01-04-2002; Elsevier
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Biological Warfare - prevention & control; Bioterrorism - prevention & control; Cooperative Behavior; Disaster Planning - methods; Emergency Service, Hospital - organization & administration; Emergency Service, Hospital - statistics & numerical data; General aspects; Hazardous Substances - supply & distribution; Humans; Information Systems - standards; Internet; Medical sciences; Models, Organizational; Planification. Prevention (methods). Intervention. Evaluation; Population Surveillance - methods; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Regional Health Planning - methods; Systems Integration; Triage - standards; United States; User-Computer Interface; United States; North America; America; Human; Medicine; Project; Emergency department; Information communication; Terrorism; Cooperation; Open systems; Emergency; Sanitary surveillance; Public health
• ISSN: 0196-0644; 1097-6760
• DOI: 10.1067/mem.2002.123127

The Frontlines of Medicine Project is a collaborative effort of emergency medicine (including emergency medical services and clinical toxicology), public health, emergency government, law enforcement, and informatics. This collaboration proposes to develop a nonproprietary, “open systems” approach for reporting emergency department patient data. The common element is a standard approach to sending messages from individual EDs to regional oversight entities that could then analyze the data received. ED encounter data could be used for various public health initiatives, including syndromic surveillance for chemical and biological terrorism. The interlinking of these regional systems could also permit public health surveillance at a national level based on ED patient encounter data. Advancements in the Internet and Web-based technologies could allow the deployment of these standardized tools in a rapid time frame. [Barthell EN, Cordell WH, Moorhead JC, Handler J, Feied C, Smith MS, Cochrane DG, Felton CW, Collins MA. The Frontlines of Medicine Project: a proposal for the standardized communication of emergency department data for public health uses including syndromic surveillance for biological and chemical terrorism. Ann Emerg Med. April 2002;39:422-429.]