The "European Journal of General Practice" published research on a nationwide observational prospective study conducted in Belgian general practices. A team of researchers from Sciensano, the Belgian Institute for Health, and the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at KU Leuven carried out the study. It introduces a COVID-19 syndromic surveillance tool implemented in Belgian general practices, utilizing electronic health records for real-time monitoring.

This tool extracted diagnostic codes for COVID-19 and related conditions, calculated 7-day rolling averages, and compared them with official laboratory-confirmed cases and hospital admissions data. Involving 4,773 general practitioners, the surveillance tool's data showed trends that aligned with official COVID-19 data sources, albeit with a 10-day delay for hospital admissions. The tool provided rapid, actionable data for decision-making, identifying areas for improvement such as greater standardization between electronic medical records software developers. Overall, the syndromic surveillance tool, called Barometer, effectively monitored COVID-19 in primary care, proving valuable for data-driven decision-making throughout the pandemic and highlighting potential enhancements for future health crisis monitoring.

The full article is available via https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13814788.2023.2293699