Utility of Data Fusion for Public Health Monitors: Lessons Learned from a Beta Test.

The on-site beta test of system upgrade to the Early Notification of community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) allowed user feedback to the development team to aid in the evaluation of an analytic combination of weighted clinical and syndromic evidence, known as fusion, and direct the completion of the upgrade prior to launch.  The analytic fusion capability was improved particularly in the area of severity-related indicator data, improving algorithms, and user interfaces.