Use of telephone helpline data for syndromic surveillance of adverse events following immunization in Australia: A retrospective study, 2009 to 2017

Abstract

Background: The increasing availability of electronic healthcare data offers an opportunity to enhance adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) signal monitoring in near real-time. Aim: To evaluate the potential use of telephone helpline data to augment the existing AEFI surveillance system in Victoria, Australia. Methods: Anonymised telephone helpline call data were extracted between 2009 and 2017. For comparison, we included AEFI reports to the Victorian enhanced passive surveillance system, SAEFVIC-“Surveillance of Adverse Events Following Vaccination In the Community”. The temporal pattern cross-correlation coefficient at different time lags was estimated as a measure of timeliness e..