Bio-surveillance system

Abstract

A bio-surveillance system monitors symptoms or groups of symptoms experienced by people in a geographical area. The system tracks symptoms reported by calls to an emergency service dispatcher. The bio-surveillance system monitors the symptoms and associates the geographical location with the symptoms. Various triggers are programmed and stored in the system to look for certain types of threats. Each trigger is set based on a statistical variation of the historical data relating to the symptoms within a predetermined time in a predefined geographical area. When the reported symptoms exceed one of the triggers, an alert is activated to provide an indication of a potential biological or chemical terrorist attack.

1 . A method of detecting an event comprising the steps of:
 evaluating a patient to determine at least one health symptom experienced by the patient;   monitoring occurrences of the at least one health symptom;   using the at least one health symptom to determine which of at least one of a plurality of different events is being detected;   comparing the occurrences of the at least one health symptom to a trigger value; and   activating an alert indicating the occurrence of an event when the occurrences of the at least one health symptom exceed the trigger value.   
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1  further including the steps of contacting an emergency services dispatcher to report the at least one health symptom and then inputting the at least one health symptom into a dispatcher computer. 
   
   
       3 . The method as recited in  claim 1  further including the step of providing the at least one health symptom in a first geographical area. 
   
   
       4 . The method as recited in  claim 3  further including the step of accumulating the at least one health symptom in a second geographical area which includes the first geographical area and which is greater than the first geographical area. 
   
   
       5 . The method as recited in  claim 1  further including the steps determining a geographic location of each of the at least one health symptom and associating the geographical location with each of the at least one health symptom. 
   
   
       6 . The method as recited in  claim 5  further including the step of displaying the geographical location of each of the at least one health symptom on a display. 
   
   
       7 . The method as recited in  claim 1  further including the step of adjusting the trigger value to generate a new trigger value and then comparing the new trigger value to the occurrences of the at least one health symptom. 
   
   
       8 . The method as recited in  claim 1  wherein the trigger value is a statistical variation of a historical value of the at least one health symptom. 
   
   
       9 . The method as recited in  claim 1  further including the step of weighting the at least one health symptom. 
   
   
       10 . The method as recited in  claim 1  wherein the at least one health symptom is one of headache, fever, fainting, clammy, unconscious, bleeding, vomiting and nausea. 
   
   
       11 . The method as recited in  claim 1  wherein the event is one of a biological attack and a chemical attack. 
   
   
       12 . The method as recited in  claim 1  wherein the step of monitoring includes monitoring the occurrences of the at least one health symptom within a time window, the method including the step of generating a trigger based upon historical occurrences of the at least one health symptom within the time window and updating the trigger at an update frequency, wherein the step of updating includes the step of adding new occurrences to the historical occurrences and the step of dropping old occurrences from the historical occurrences. 
   
   
       13 . The method as recited in  claim 12  wherein the trigger is based upon criteria, the method further including the steps of changing criteria of the trigger and recalculating the trigger based upon the changed criteria and the historical occurrences. 
   
   
       14 . The method as recited in  claim 13  wherein the at least one health symptom includes a plurality of symptoms, and where the criteria for the trigger includes the plurality of symptoms, the step of changing the criteria including the step of adding a symptom to the plurality of symptoms. 
   
   
       15 . The method as recited in  claim 13  wherein the at least one health symptom includes a plurality of symptoms, and where the criteria for the trigger includes the plurality of symptoms and a statistical relationship to the historical occurrences, the step of changing the criteria including the step of changing the statistical relationship to the historical occurrences. 
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 1  further including the step of adjusting a sensitivity of the trigger value. 
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the step of adjusting the sensitivity of the trigger value is based on a national threat level. 
   
   
       18 . The method as recited in  claim 1  wherein an alert system performs the step of activating the alert. 
   
   
       19 . A system for detecting an event comprising:
 a main computer for monitoring occurrences of at least one health symptom, for comparing the occurrences of the at least one health symptom to a trigger value, and for using the at least one health symptom to determine which of at least one of a plurality of different events is being detected, wherein the at least one health symptom is determined by evaluating a patient; and   an alert system indicating an alarm based upon the comparison of the occurrences of the at least one health symptom to the trigger value to indicate the occurrence of an event.   
   
   
       20 . The system as recited in  claim 19  further including a plurality of input computers for gathering occurrences of the at least one health symptom. 
   
   
       21 . The system as recited in  claim 19  wherein the main computer determines a geographic location of the at least one health symptom. 
   
   
       22 . The system as recited in  claim 19  further including a visual display that displays a location of the at least one health symptom. 
   
   
       23 . The system as recited in  claim 19  wherein the trigger value is based on a statistical variation of a historical value of the at least one health symptom. 
   
   
       24 . The system as recited in  claim 19  wherein the at least one health symptom is one of headache, fever, fainting, clammy, unconscious, bleeding, vomiting and nausea. 
   
   
       25 . The system of  claim 19  wherein the at least one health symptom includes a plurality of symptoms. 
   
   
       26 . The system of  claim 25  wherein the trigger value is based upon historical occurrences of the plurality of symptoms. 
   
   
       27 . The system of  claim 26  wherein the trigger value is updated at an update frequency, wherein new occurrences are added to the historical occurrences to update the trigger value. 
   
   
       28 . The system of  claim 19  wherein a sensitivity of the trigger value is adjusted. 
   
   
       29 . The system of  claim 28  wherein the sensitivity of the trigger value is based on a national threat level. 
   
   
       30 . The system of  claim 29  wherein a person contacts an emergency services dispatcher to report the at least one health symptom, and the emergency services dispatcher inputs the at least one health symptom into a dispatcher computer. 
   
   
       31 . The system as recited in  claim 19  wherein the event is one of a chemical attack and a biological attack.