Frequently Asked Questions
General
What is NC DETECT?
Who develops and manages NC DETECT?
How is NC DETECT related to NCHESS?
How have North Carolinians benefited from
NC DETECT?
Who pays for NC DETECT?
Data Access
Who is permitted to access the NC DETECT data?
Can other hospitals view data from our hospital?
Technical
What data elements are available in NC DETECT?
Where do the data physically reside?
NC DETECT 4.0 (Web Application)
What browsers do I need to use when accessing NC DETECT
4.0?
How does NC DETECT 4.0 group data by week?
Why are signals and counts different if I switch between
searching by county and by hospital for my geographic area in the emergency
department data?
My search results aren't as expected... I expected
higher numbers in my search results... My syndrome counts aren't as high
as expected..
How do I sign up to get NC DETECT training?
General
What is NC DETECT?
The North Carolina Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection
Tool (NC DETECT) is the Web-based early event detection and timely public
health surveillance system in the North Carolina Public Health Information
Network. NC DETECT uses the CDC's CUSUM algorithms from the Early Aberration
Reporting System (EARS) to monitor several data sources for suspicious
patterns. The reporting system also provides broader public health surveillance
reports for emergency department visits related to hurricanes, injuries,
asthma, vaccine-preventable diseases, occupational health and others.
A short summary of NC DETECT with
additional information is also available.
Who develops and manages
NC DETECT?
Staff at the UNC Department of Emergency Medicine (UNC DEM), under contract
to the North Carolina Division of Public Health (NC DPH) develop and manage
NC DETECT. UNC DEM collaborates with NC DPH on all aspects of NC DETECT
development.
How is NC DETECT related
to NCHESS?
Data from the North Carolina Hospital Emergency Surveillance System (NCHESS)
are loaded into NC DETECT (which was formerly known as the North Carolina
Bioterrorism and Emerging Infection Prevention System, NC BEIPS). The
NC DETECT team at the UNC Department of Emergency Medicine monitors the
quality of the NCHESS data and work with hospitals, their vendors and
the North Carolina Hospital Association (NCHA) to ensure NC DETECT users
have access to the most accurate data possible.
How have North Carolinians
benefited from NC DETECT?
With NC DETECT, public health officials at the local, regional and state
levels are able to monitor a variety of important public health issues
in a secure and timely fashion, including influenza, post-hurricane health
issues, injury and violence, and vaccine-preventable disease surveillance.
For example, NC DETECT users have monitored illness and injury effects
after hurricanes Isabel and Ophelia, analyzed ED use at select hospitals
by Katrina evacuees, and uncovered unreported cases of tuberculosis. Before
NC DETECT, similar surveillance was either simply not performed, relied
on manual, redundant data entry, or had a considerable time lag. A summary
of specific NC DETECT outcomes
is also available.
Since NC DETECT is designed to uncover suspicious patterns of illness
in both human and animal populations, it is a key tool in the early detection
of emerging infectious diseases, such as new strains of influenza.
Who pays for NC DETECT?
NC DETECT is funded from federal bioterrorism grants administered through
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and disbursed by the North
Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health.
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Data Access
Who is permitted to access
the NC DETECT data?
Users authorized by the NC Division of Public Health may access NC DETECT
data. To request access to NC DETECT, please read the Terms of Use and
complete the online Account
Request form.
Can other hospitals view data
from our hospital?
Hospital users can view data from their own hospital/hospital system only
and statewide data aggregated by patient county of residence with no hospital
identifiers.
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Technical
What data elements are
being collected?
Please visit the NC DETECT data elements
page to read what we are collecting.
Where do the NC DETECT
data physically reside?
The NC DETECT data are housed at a secure data center that provides 24/7/365
security and support.
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NC DETECT 4.0 (Web Application)
What browsers do I need
to use when accessing NC DETECT 4.0?
NC DETECT has been tested with Internet Explorer 6.x and higher. NC DETECT
4.0 may not perform as expected with other browsers.
How does NC DETECT 4.0 group
data by week?
A complete week in NC DETECT begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday. If
you select a date range on a case report and view the data by week on
a chart, NC DETECT will NOT alter your date range to make sure you are
using a complete week. Please use the calendar tool to ensure that you
are starting your search date with a Sunday and ending with a Saturday
if you would like to group the results by week.
Why are signals and counts
different if I switch between searching by county and by hospital for
my geographic area in the emergency department data?
There are several reasons. Searching by hospital includes all patients
who visited that hospital, regardless of where they live. Searching by
county is based on a patient's county of residence. Patients may visit
a hospital that is not in their county of residence. Similarly, out of
state patients may visit a hospital that you have access to; they will
be included in results searched on by hospital but will not be included
in results searched on by county. Searching by county(ies) or PHRST region(s)
also excludes records with NULL (missing) counties, but these visits will
be included in searches by hospital.
My search results aren't
as expected... I expected higher numbers in my search results... My syndrome
counts aren't as high as expected...
All of these questions are related to data completeness. In order to ensure
that you are viewing complete data, please view the total visit counts
for the hospital or county you are analyzing. You can do this in the Syndrome
Overview Report (by location, then syndrome) or in the Visit Counts by
Day / Week / Month report. If the visit counts look normal, the data may
have missing data elements that are affecting your counts. In addition,
all users should refer to the hospital status
table to see when hospitals in their respective region(s) began sending
data to NC DETECT. If you ever have any concerns about the quality of
the NC DETECT data you are viewing, please contact us at ncdetect@listserv.med.unc.edu.
How do I sign up to get
NC DETECT training?
Users interested in customized training on how to use NC DETECT can call
us at (919) 843-2361 to schedule a session. Training sessions can last
from 30 minutes to 2 hours and can be at our site or at the location of
one's choosing.
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