March Newsletter - 2004

Syndrome Surveillance
Dr. Alan Zelicoff, Senior Science Consultant with the engineering and risk management firm, Aries Corporation, recently developed the syndrome surveillance system SYRIS (Syndrome Related Information System).  SYRIS is designed to be an information source to public health officials and clinicians. SYRIS is different from current syndrome surveillance systems in that it is designed for use not only by physicians, but also veterinarians, school nurses, animal control, emergency medical services, and medical examiners.  Additionally, SYRIS does not require a web browser for use; therefore, can be accessed via cell phone or PDA.

A provider using SYRIS is able to report information about signs and symptoms into the program.  Additionally, providers can enter a myriad of demographic information about patients, for example: age, gender and occupation.  Moreover, laboratories conducting analysis are able to report results on this system.  The ability for providers and laboratories to report such a wide variety of information about a given patient provides and efficient and quick way to obtain correlation statistics.  The program will then immediately summarize the information both in text and graphically.  Public health officials will instantly be able to review information and map where affected patients were treated.   This enables officials to quickly analyze the data, update information and issue any necessary alerts. 

In this era of bioterrorism fears, SYRIS provides an invaluable, unique resource for all types of providers and public health officials.  Global implementation of SYRIS will significantly improve bioterrorism preparedness and response, as well as assist in efforts to recognize and contain naturally occurring incidents.  SYRIS is currently in ALPHA testing in West Texas and Central Massachusetts and is expected to go live in mid-June 2004.

Have a question or comment? Email bioterr@slu.edu