Syndromic Surveillance & Meaningful Use

The National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) promotes and advances the development of a syndromic surveillance (SyS) system for the timely exchange of syndromic surveillance data. SyS data is used to improve situational awareness and enhance responsiveness to hazardous events and disease outbreaks to protect community’s health, safety and security.

Mandated in the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, the NSSP was launched in 2003 to establish an integrated national public health surveillance system for early detection and rapid assessment of potential bioterrorism-related illness. NSSP includes collaboration among local, state and federal public health partners (including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention); other federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; hospitals and health professionals; and other key stakeholders.

In 2016, the Electronic Syndromic System for the Early Notification of Community-Based Epidemics (ESSENCE), developed by Johns Hopkins University (JHU), became the NSSP's primary syndromic surveillance tool. NSSP's version of ESSENCE allows epidemiologists to collaborate with others across geopolitical boundaries to share data which provides a broader surveillance view.

Key values of the NSSP:

• Enhancing health monitoring infrastructure and workforce capacity at the state, local and territorial levels
• Expanding the utility of NSSP data to use in all-hazards incidents and to contribute information for public health situational awareness, routine public health practice and improved health outcomes
• Improving the ability to detect emergency health-related threats by supporting the enhancement of systems to signal alerts for potential problems and improving the ability to understand the severity of health issues
• Increasing local and state jurisdictions participation in NSSP