Srategies for identifying diseases

Srategies for identifying diseases
Case-Finding
• A case definition must be simple, understandable, and acceptable. It must be practical for the setting and usable by the persons on whom the system will rely for reporting. For example, if the case definition requires laboratory confirmation, the laboratory test must be readily available and • competently performed.
Surveillance
• is the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of health data. • Surveillance systems are often considered information loops or cycles involving health care providers, public health agencies, and the public.
• The current concept of surveillance as the monitoring of disease occurrence in populations. • The oldest and most well-established systems are those that monitor the occurrence of communicable diseases. • Hospital infection control,personnel serve a double role conducting surveillance in the hospital.
Purposes and Uses of Surveillance
• • To detect sudden changes in disease occurrence and distribution • • To follow secular (long-term) trends and patterns of disease • • To identify changes in agents and host factors • • To detect changes in health care practices
• Lung cancer in non-smokers
• hospital discharge records and vital records do not routinely provide smoking information. For this condition, cancer registries may provide the best opportunity for surveillance if smoking information is routinely collected • establish surveillance with interested internists, oncologists, and other health care providers likely to see lung cancer patients.