A systems overview of the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-Based Epidemics (ESSENCE II).

The Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-Based Epidemics, or ESSENCE II, uses syndromic and nontraditional health information to provide very early warning of abnormal health conditions in the National Capital Area (NCA). ESSENCE II is being developed for the Department of Defense Global Emerging Infections System and is the only known system to combine both military and civilian health care information for daily outbreak surveillance. The National Capital Area has a complicated, multijurisdictional structure that makes data sharing and integrated regional surveillance challenging.