Surveillance systems data collection

No specific total amphetamine-use statistics are available. However, according to the year 2000 report of the Drug Abuse Warning Network, there was a 35% increase from 1999 to 2000 in the number of hospital emergency department (ED) cases in which amphetamines were mentioned. DAWN is a national surveillance system that collects data on drug-related emergency department visits. 

Another United States HHS survey, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, and is also an in-school survey that collects data from students in grades 9-12. YRBS began in 1990 and has been conducted twice-yearly since 1991. The results of the YRBS are difficult to interpret strictly in terms of Ecstasy use, however, because they only ask questions regarding illicit... 

Protection of patient safety remains a responsibility at service delivery. Post-marketing surveillance systems aim to monitor, collect, and evaluate ADEs to identify long-term or unknown safety issues. Most developing countries lack the resources to make pharmaco-vigilance a priority therefore, international data can help inform national DRA decisions (WHO 2001). 

In the field of public health, the term surveillance refers to the ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of health data (CDC, 2001b, p. 2). The data collected and analyzed through surveillance systems provide information about patterns of disease occurrence in a population. In turn, this information forms the basis of action by public health officials in designing, implementing, and evaluating interventions to control or prevent disease (CDC, 1992). The activities carried out in a surveillance system are described briefly in the following. 

Several types of data are routinely collected related to infectious disease surveillance, including morbidity, mortality, and health indicator data (CDC, 1992). Each state has requirements for mandatory reporting by health care providers and facilities, including laboratories, of cases of notifiable infectious diseases. There is a national notifiable disease list as well, for which reporting is voluntary, with data compiled through the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (CDC, 2004d, 2006). 

New York City. The New York City Department of Public Health and Mental Hygiene collects health indicator data on emergency department visits, retail pharmacy sales, and ambulance dispatch logs, along with one employer s worker absenteeism rates, as part of an integrated, citywide surveillance system (Heffer-nan et al., 2004). 

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