Preparing for the Impact of the ICD-9/10 Transition on Syndromic Surveillance

Prior to the October 1, 2015 transition deadline, all public health jurisdictions should prepare for the impact that the ICD-9/10 transition will have on their syndromic surveillance practice. This change presents challenges involving resources, funding, and time constraints for code translation and syndrome classification. It will also require new statistical methodologies to accommodate changes to coding practices. This session describes the process developed to incorporate practical public health input to translate syndromic surveillance syndromes and sub-syndromes from ICD-9 diagnostic codes to ICD-10 codes. These translations will be a solution that addresses how the challenge of the transition can be used to improve surveillance practice.