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Maryland is planning to soon launch a statewide surveillance system designed to track disease outbreaks and other public health concerns, Government Health IT reports. Developed by the U.S. Department of Defense to monitor bioterrorism outbreaks, the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) Web-based reporting system is currently used by several state public health departments. According to the deputy director of Public Health Services for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH), the system serves to "provide a quick, big-picture view of potential health risks to the state's population." Maryland is the first state to achieve 100 percent participation with ESSENCE, with all 46 of the state's acute-care hospitals voluntarily agreeing to participate in the tracking program. Specifically, hospitals in the state will collect and transmit symptom data, stripped of all patient identifiers, to DHMH where it will then be tested by an analytics engine and reviewed by two full-time epidemiologists and, if necessary, a consulting physician. The data can then be compared against other public health databases that track information such as hospital admissions, lab results, patient transport information and mandatory physician disease reporting. Maryland's ESSENCE system also monitors retail sales of over-the-counter medications at 280 pharmacies throughout the state to help capture data on individuals not seeking emergency care for their symptoms. In addition, DHMH officials are building a school reporting application to monitor patterns of student absenteeism. Future plans for the system call for it to be integrated with other public health databases to create a broader preparedness dashboard (Hayes, Government Health IT, 9/15/09).