Distribute was a project of the International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS).
Through use of the Distribute system, state and local public health agencies voluntarily contributed data on influenza like illness (ILI), and other syndromes of interest, for comparison with data from other jurisdictions. Typically contributors sent data to Distribute on a daily basis. These data were anonymous and described counts of emergency department visits within public health jurisdictions for several disease syndromes. These counts, and the proportions derived from dividing each by the total number of visits for the jurisdiction, could be viewed by the general public and made available to contributing public health agencies to permit comparisons of acute respiratory illness in different states and cities.
The core principles of Distribute were:
- Share Aggregate Level Data
- Maintain Jurisdictional Control
- Minimize Barriers to Participation
- Create a Collaborative Surveillance Network
Distribute had both a public view, showing ILI data for jurisdictions in the United States, and a restricted site, with more granular data and user-driven visualizations available to contributors.
In 2012, ISDS posted the following messages:
The evolving nature of syndromic surveillance practice in the US has led ISDS to make the difficult decision to end its management of the Distribute system. As of April 4, 2012, ISDS will no longer be displaying visualizations of the Proportion of Emergency Department Visits For Influenza-like Illness (ILI) per Week on this site. The Distribute Project will continue to collect data until May 31, 2012. Until that time, data providers will have access to the Distribute Restricted site ([1]) and Community Forum.
CDC funding for Distribute ends May 31, 2012. The Distribute Restricted site is currently scheduled to be taken off line May 31, 2012.