Abstract
Preliminary Analysis of SaTScan's Effectiveness to Detect Disease Outbreaks Track: Health and Human Services Author(s): Akbar Sharip, Raymond Aller, Laurene Mascola, Curtis Croker, Bessie Hwang To determine the usefulness of SaTScan as an outbreak detection tool, three emergency department's data from January through November 2004 was evaluated. The four syndromes studied were rash, respiratory, neurological, and gastrointestinal. Clusters found using retrospective analysis with p<0.5 were further tested by using the prospective analysis option with a 30-day baseline. Clusters detected by the prospective option were compared with known outbreaks and previous syndromic signals generated by a temporal aberration detection algorithm. SaTScan-identified clusters were displayed as a thematic map by using ArcMap 9. The retrospective option found 59 clusters; 9 clusters with p<0.5 were further tested with the prospective option. A scabies and a rotavirus outbreak detected by temporal signals were also reported by SaTScan. A food poisoning outbreak not detected by the temporal signal detection system was observed by SaTScan. SaTScan has the potential to be a strong complement to the current purely temporal aberration detection system. Akbar Sharip LADHS ACDC 313 N.Figuroa ST ####212 Los Angeles , CA 90012 US Phone: 213-989-7208 E-mail: asharip@ladhs.org Raymond Aller LADHS 313 N. Figueroa St Los Angeles , CA 90012 US Phone: 213-989-7208 E-mail: raller@ladhs.org Laurene Mascola LADHS ACDC 313 N. Figueroa St Los Angeles , CA 90012 US Phone: 213-989-7208 E-mail: lmascola@ladhs.org Curtis Croker LADHS 313 N. Figueroa St Los Angeles , CA 90012 US Phone: 213-989-7208 E-mail: ccroker@ladhs.org Bessie Hwang LADHS 313 N. Figueroa St Los Angeles , CA 90012 US Phone: 213-989-7208 E-mail: bhwang@ladhs.org |
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