The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics lab (APL) https://www.jhuapl.edu developed the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE).
APL has entered into an agreement with InductiveHealth Informatics in Atlanta https://www.inductivehealth.com to enable access by additional state and local governments to the system.
The system enables public health officials to maintain situational awareness of the health in their communities on a routine basis. The system’s algorithms analyze data to search for anomalies that might indicate an outbreak. ESSENCE has also been used to monitor disease outbreaks following mass gatherings, assist in disaster recovery efforts, and to track opioid-related deaths.
ESSENCE utilizes data such as emergency room and urgent care visits, as well as why the visits occurred along with other gathered information. Users, like public health epidemiologists and infection control practitioners then perform queries to search for combinations of signs of symptoms that may indicate a surge.
APL’s commercial partnership with InductiveHealth Informatics will expand the system’s reach, allowing InductiveHealth to offer ESSENCE to their customers to provide a syndromic surveillance software-as-a-service capability. The agreement also better positions APL to focus on ESSENCE related R&D by emphasizing new data sources, novel analytics and forecasting while exploring other opportunities to grow the tool.
Currently, ESSENCE is used by more than 25 jurisdictions including state, regional, and county or city levels, by CDC, and globally by the Department of Defense. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been an essential tool for filling testing and contact tracing gaps to help track the spread of SARS-Co-V-2.
Previously, APL has handled the distribution and maintenance of ESSENCE while leading a parallel effort to continue advancing the technology. The load sharing that will occur in this partnership will allow APL to focus more on research while also getting the commercial perspective on the customer’s needs, which may also lead to new opportunities for technological development.