Health officials in North Carolina say the state is testing a new disease monitoring system which will allow them to follow conditions in emergency rooms across the state. The system will continuously collect information on patient symptoms at emergency rooms in North Carolina on 24-hour basis. The data will allow public health officials to monitor possible emerging health threats such as an influenza outbreak or other epidemiological events. Emergency rooms will get updates every 15 minutes containing the latest data. According to organizers, the effort is the first of its kind in the nation.
- read this article from the North Carolina Observer