
368 | CHAPTER 21 Using Informatics to Promote Community/Population Health
decision-support tools timely recognition of reportable diseases with the poten-
tial to create a substantial outbreak is now possible. Tools for pattern recognition
can be used to screen data for patterns needing further public health investigation.
During the 2003 epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) worked to develop surveillance criteria to identify persons with SARS in the
United States and the surveillance case definition changed throughout the epi-
demic, to reflect increased understanding of SARS (CDC, 2007).
Information acquired by the collection ...