Analysis of the Korean Emergency Department Syndromic Surveillance System: Mass Type Acute Diarrheal Syndrome

Ahn, Shin; Lee, Jae Ho; Kim, Won; Lim, Kyung Soo

What we have learned from this study was that there are substantial discrepancies between the data reported from the Anti-Bioterrorism Information Network and the actual disease outbreaks. Of course, there are limitations that participating emergency departments in the syndromic surveillance is limited to 125 organs and that some degree of patients might seek for medical services besides emergency departments, such as private clinics or outpatient departments. But considering the fact that the data from the KFDA and the Korean CDC are both from the same population, and that both groups should at least follow the same trends of rise or fall, the study results are not comprehensible. After all, the factor that can cause these discrepancies, which the Korean EDSS is currently facing, is that the report rates could be dependant on the reporter's education level and their wills to report [3] . Meanwhile the Anti-Bioterrorism Information Network reveals every emergency department's report rates and their rankings in the website and forces them to actively participate. The city, county and borough public health centers also urge those emergency departments who haven't submitted their daily reports. These measures may increase the report rates, but they can not improve their accuracies. After all, limitations of the Korean EDSS including lack of compulsory manners, not being automatically linked to electronic medical record, and the different reporting process in data reporting system between the Korean CDC and the KFDA, might have brought out the large discrepancies in our study.