title: Influenza surveillance using data from a telemedicine centre.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed at investigating whether data from medical teleconsultations may contribute to influenza surveillance.
  
  
  METHODS
  International Classification of Primary Care 2nd Edition (ICPC-2) codes were used to analyse the proportion of teleconsultations due to influenza-related symptoms. Results were compared with the weekly Swiss Sentinel reports.
  
  
  RESULTS
  When using the ICPC-2 code for fever we could reproduce the seasonal influenza peaks of the winter seasons 07/08, 08/09 and 09/10 as depicted by the Sentinel data. For the pandemic influenza 09/10, we detected a much higher first peak in summer 2009 which correlated with a potential underreporting in the Sentinel system.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  ICPC-2 data from medical teleconsultations allows influenza surveillance in real time and correlates very well with the Swiss Sentinel system.
authors.affiliation: Swiss Centre for Telemedicine Medgate, Gellertstrasse 19, 4020, Basel, Switzerland. eva.blozik@medgate.ch
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Blozik
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Grandchamp
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: von Overbeck
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology*; D058873:Pandemics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000379:methods*