Citation

Barthell EN, Cordell WH, Moorhead JC, Handler J, Feied C, Smith MS, Cochrane DG, Felton CW, Collins MA. Ann. Emerg. Med. 2002; 39(4): 422-429.

Affiliation

Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA. ebarthell@infinityhealthcare.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, American College of Emergency Physicians, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11919529

Abstract

The Frontlines of Medicine Project is a collaborative effort of emergency medicine (including emergency medical services and clinical toxicology), public health, emergency government, law enforcement, and informatics. This collaboration proposes to develop a nonproprietary, "open systems" approach for reporting emergency department patient data. The common element is a standard approach to sending messages from individual EDs to regional oversight entities that could then analyze the data received. ED encounter data could be used for various public health initiatives, including syndromic surveillance for chemical and biological terrorism. The interlinking of these regional systems could also permit public health surveillance at a national level based on ED patient encounter data. Advancements in the Internet and Web-based technologies could allow the deployment of these standardized tools in a rapid time frame.

Language: en