Daily Situational Awareness Tool (DSAT): Utilizing real time infectious disease surveillance systems

Real-time surveillance is an important source of information in the San Mateo County Health Department's response to communicable diseases. San Mateo County faces unique challenges in terms of disease control and prevention. Within the County is San Francisco International Airport, a main port of entry for travelers from many East Asian countries. In addition, the county has a mobile work force population and a high population density which can increase the spread of disease. The Daily Situational Awareness Tool (DSAT) is a summary of surveillance systems used in San Mateo County, designed to inform key Health Department staff of communicable diseases on a daily basis.

Information is gathered from surveillance systems that are updated daily. A range of sources provide a multi-layered picture of infectious diseases in the county, providing both a short and long-term view of disease patterns. Surveillance systems include: emergency department bed use for all six county hospitals, centralized 911 dispatch and EMS real-time run data (through FirstWatch), over the counter pharmaceutical sales data (through RODS), the National Bioterrorism Syndromic Surveillance Demonstration Project covering outpatient data, school absenteeism data, unexplained death reports from the county coroner, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) CDC Quarantine Station reports, BioSense, and other applicable communicable disease related incidents.

Each surveillance system contributes a score, determined by specific threshold levels, to an overall daily score that corresponds to one of three color-coded levels of alert to provide key Health Department decision makers with a summary of potentially significant infectious diseases in the community.