At a glance
This toolkit aims to advance the integration of syndromic surveillance in health equity-centered solutions in public health practice. Achieving health equity is a national priority to ensure all individuals can reach their full health potential. Eliminating health disparities is a core goal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) organizational strategy and is a top priority of Healthy People 2030[1].
About this toolkit
To reach that objective, governmental health organizations leverage data systems to collect information about existing disparities and direct resources to reduce them. Syndromic surveillance data can provide near real-time insights to identify inequities and advance the nation's health equity goals and priorities.
Syndromic surveillance uses data from emergency departments (EDs), urgent care facilities, and other sources to identify and monitor health events. Given its broad coverage, syndromic surveillance is a powerful tool for identifying existing health inequities among a care-seeking population. When combined with local knowledge and insights from other data sources, syndromic surveillance can provide timely data and trends to monitor health inequities in communities and examine upstream determinants of health.
Syndromic surveillance analysts can play a key role in incorporating health equity. To do so, analysts must understand foundational health equity concepts and how syndromic surveillance data are collected, stored, analyzed and interpreted. By applying a health equity lens to each step of the syndromic surveillance data lifecycle, analysts can help their public health agency and partners improve data reliability and utility, strengthen the effectiveness of interventions and promote community strengths and assets.
Who should use this toolkit
This toolkit aims to advance the integration of syndromic surveillance in health equity-centered solutions in public health practice.
This toolkit is for syndromic surveillance program managers, analysts and site administrators.
What's included
This toolkit provide practical guidance, resources, information and tools for syndromic surveillance practitioners to:
- Describe the importance of health equity by defining key health equity terms and concepts.
- Identify key health equity considerations relevant to the syndromic surveillance data lifecycle and opportunities to use syndromic surveillance to identify, investigate and corroborate health disparities.
- Enhance equity in syndromic surveillance systems by identifying and addressing disparities in data collection, analysis and communication strategies.
- Identify additional resources to support health equity-centered analyses.
- 1. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Available at: https://health.gov/healthypeople