From Ebola to Heroin; the Use of EMS Data for Near Real Time Alerting and Surviellance

This presentation will provide the learner with an appreciation of the use of data from Emergency Medical Services for the surviellance of public health problems. In using 911 dispatch and electronic patient care records from EMS, there were reliable, real time search and identification of r patients meeting screening criteria for emergent public health conditions. The surviellance results can be used as surrogate markers for pubic health issues occuring in the community and offer public health officials more timely alerting of potential cases.