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. 2004 Jan;10(1):48-53.
doi: 10.3201/eid1001.020764.

Fatal infectious disease surveillance in a medical examiner database

Mitchell I Wolfe  1 , Kurt B Nolte, Steven S Yoon
Affiliations

Fatal infectious disease surveillance in a medical examiner database

Mitchell I Wolfe et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2004 Jan.

Abstract

Increasing infectious disease deaths, the emergence of new infections, and bioterrorism have made surveillance for infectious diseases a public health concern. Medical examiners and coroners certify approximately 20% of all deaths that occur within the United States and can be a key source of information regarding infectious disease deaths. We hypothesized that a computer-assisted search tool (algorithm) could detect infectious disease deaths from a medical examiner database, thereby reducing the time and resources required to perform such surveillance manually. We developed two algorithms, applied them to a medical examiner database, and verified the cases identified against the opinion of a panel of experts. The algorithms detected deaths with infectious components with sensitivities from 67% to 94%, and predictive value positives ranging from 8% to 49%. Algorithms can be useful for surveillance in medical examiner offices that have limited resources or for conducting surveillance across medical examiner jurisdictions.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart for Infectious Disease Death Review Team review and determination of infectious cause of death.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Flow chart for algorithm 1 and 2 development and testing.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Two-by-two table used to derive predictive positive value.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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