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Accomplishments for Core Goal #5 Biosurveillance

Biosurveillance
Governor O’Malley established a focus on early detection, surveillance, and situational awareness to mitigate the threat of both naturally occurring and human-caused biological hazards.  This includes increasing surveillance of key public health indicators and monitoring sensor data for chemical or radiological releases or aberrations.  The State’s build-out and expansion of its automated computer biosurveillance system to include more information from more partners has improved its ability to respond to disease and virus outbreaks such as the the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.  

• Collecting real-time patient condition data from all 46 acute care hospitals in Maryland. Maryland is among the first states in the nation to connect all of its acute care hospitals to a public health syndromic biosurveillance system. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s (DHMH) Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) began anonymously tracking patient symptoms reported in emergency room visits from selected hospitals in 2005. By 2009, all 46 acute care hospitals in the State were reporting data to ESSENCE and that data was proven to be a leading indicator in the H1N1 influenza pandemic. That same year, ESSENCE was able to show increases in influenza activity before the first H1N1 influenza case had been confirmed. More recently, DHMH has used ESSENCE to track the spread of asthma, carbon monoxide poisoning, and other public health threats.

• All 24 public school systems in Maryland report daily school absenteeism data to ESSENCE. School absenteeism provides a more complete analysis of potential public health events, especially during influenza season, because children are often the first carriers of new viruses. In late 2011, the State partnered with Allegany, Carroll, and Harford County Public Schools to begin anonymously reporting elementary school absenteeism data to ESSENCE. The first day of the 2012-2013 school year marked the very first that every public school in Maryland reported absenteeism data to ESSENCE.

• Collecting real-time over-the-counter drug sales data from more than 300 retail pharmacies in Maryland. Since 2010, approximately 300 pharmacies across the State’s 24 counties have reported anonymous sales data for over-the-counter medications and thermometers to ESSENCE providing a representative data sample of the population. Sales of thermometers and cold medications can be used to indicate the emergence of seasonal flu or more serious public health threats. DHMH continues to expand the number of data elements collected through ESSENCE in order to further refine its ability to detect an outbreak.
  

• MDE is leading a statewide effort to develop a preventive radiological/nuclear detection (PRND) program. Maryland’s Department of the Environment (MDE) has partnered with DHS’ Domestic Nuclear Detection office (DNDO) in 2012 to host a series of planning meetings with state, local, and federal first responders to develop a Maryland statewide PRND program. The planning activities will continue in early 2013 and result in a coordinated process for responding to the release of harmful radiological or nuclear materials and sharing intelligence on potential radiological or nuclear threats. The statewide PRND program will also leverage real-time radiological detection and monitoring technologies that are currently used in Maryland, including Baltimore City’s fixed chemical and radiological sensors, mobile and hand-held chemical and radiological equipment currently used by state agencies and local partners in the Baltimore and National Capital regions, and security alarm systems installed in Maryland-based facilities with radioactive materials as part of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI).