Automated data extraction from general practice records in an Australian setting: Trends in influenza-like illness in sentinel general practices and emergency departments

BackgroundInfluenza intelligence in New South Wales (NSW), Australia is derived mainly from emergency department (ED) presentations and hospital and intensive care admissions, which represent only a portion of influenza-like illness (ILI) in the population. A substantial amount of the remaining data lies hidden in general practice (GP) records. Previous attempts in Australia to gather ILI data from GPs have given them extra work. We explored the possibility of applying automated data extraction from GP records in sentinel surveillance in an Australian setting.The two research questions asked in designing the study were: Can syndromic ILI data be extracted automatically from routine GP data? How do ILI trends in sentinel general practice compare with ILI trends in EDs?MethodsWe adapted a software program already capable of automated data extraction to identify records of patients with ILI in routine electronic GP records in two of the most commonly used commercial programs. This tool was applied in sentinel sites to gather retrospective data for May-October 2007-2009 and in real-time for the same interval in 2010. The data were compared with that provided by the Public Health Real-time Emergency Department Surveillance System (PHREDSS) and with ED data for the same periods.ResultsThe GP surveillance tool identified seasonal trends in ILI both retrospectively and in near real-time. The curve of seasonal ILI was more responsive and less volatile than that of PHREDSS on a local area level. The number of weekly ILI presentations ranged from 8 to 128 at GP sites and from 0 to 18 in EDs in non-pandemic years.ConclusionAutomated data extraction from routine GP records offers a means to gather data without introducing any additional work for the practitioner. Adding this method to current surveillance programs will enhance their ability to monitor ILI and to detect early warning signals of new ILI events.

[1]  Wei Zheng,et al.  Potential for early warning of viral influenza activity in the community by monitoring clinical diagnoses of influenza in hospital emergency departments , 2007, BMC public health.

[2]  H. Kelly,et al.  An evaluation of the Australian Sentinel Practice Research Network (ASPREN) surveillance for influenza-like illness. , 2005, Communicable diseases intelligence quarterly report.

[3]  A. Lawson,et al.  Review of methods for space–time disease surveillance , 2010, Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology.

[4]  A Charlett,et al.  QFLU: new influenza monitoring in UK primary care to support pandemic influenza planning. , 2006, Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin.

[5]  N. Stocks,et al.  ASPREN surveillance system for influenza-like illness - A comparison with FluTracking and the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. , 2009, Australian family physician.

[6]  L Hederman,et al.  General practice out-of-hours service in Ireland provides a new source of syndromic surveillance data on influenza. , 2010, Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin.

[7]  D. Durrheim,et al.  The public health value of emergency department syndromic surveillance following a natural disaster. , 2008, Communicable diseases intelligence quarterly report.

[8]  D. McInnes,et al.  General practitioners’ use of computers for prescribing and electronic health records: results from a national survey , 2006, The Medical journal of Australia.