Enhancing syndromic surveillance for heat-related illness in Michigan with improved heat syndrome definition

With the goal to support the development of population heat resiliency and the capacity to withstand the effects of climate change, Michigan’s MDHHS and the CEC partnered to improve the MSSS to include a HRI-specific syndrome.

The new syndrome is called Heat to reflect that it is triggered by only heat-related (i.e., not cold or other “seasonal”) keywords in chief complaints. A list of one- and two-word inclusion keywords were developed. Exclusion terms were also developed to assist the classifying algorithm; classification results were improved using these exclusion terms as keywords for the Other syndrome, rather than as exclusion terms for Heat. The exclusion terms are: attack, flash, palpitations, rate, racing, flashes, pad, pack, and vent. Eliminating these terms assist in providing good quality data by distinguishing misspelling of “heart” as “heat” (e.g., “heat attack”), remove “heat flash(es)”, and burns from heat pads, packs, and vents from the Heat syndrome.