SEDRIC: System for Enteric Disease Response, Investigation, and Coordination

Sharing Data in Real Time to Solve Outbreaks Faster

Rapid, coordinated response to multistate outbreaks of foodborne and animal-related disease can prevent illness and save lives. Such responses require close collaboration, communication, and data sharing among local, state, and federal health and regulatory officials.

Since 2011, CDC has worked with a private sector partner to develop a commercial, off-the-shelf, web-based system to streamline and coordinate outbreak investigations.

The System for Enteric Disease Response, Investigation, and Coordination, or SEDRIC, lets disease detectives in many different locations work together faster and more effectively when responding to foodborne and animal-related outbreaks. The secure, web-based platform combines epidemiologic, laboratory, and traceback data in real time to make collaboration easier when investigating information from different sources. Detecting and solving outbreaks faster leads to fewer illnesses and deaths.

How does SEDRIC support outbreak investigations?

SEDRIC is web-based software system that can:

Integrate multiple surveillance data sources in real time.

DNA fingerprints of bacteria from sick people and contaminated food or animals from CDC PulseNet
Antibiotic resistance data from the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System

Visualize outbreak data rapidly in one place.

Listing of ill people who are included in an outbreak investigation
Epidemic (“epi”) curves showing when people became ill
Maps showing where and in what sequence people became ill

Provide a secure platform for partner collaboration.

Sharing documents such as questionnaires, restaurant inspections, and other records
Sharing food or animal traceback investigation diagrams

Manage a repository of historic surveillance and outbreak data.

Data on past outbreaks from the National Outbreak Reporting System
Historical information on bacteria found in foods or animals, on farms, and in production environments

How does SEDRIC work?

SEDRIC provides tools that integrate multiple data streams including:

Outbreak Dashboards: View summary data for outbreaks, including demographics, when illnesses occurred, and laboratory data
Maps: Visualize the geographic spread of illnesses, including capabilities to view illness distribution over time
Traceback Diagrams: Construct complex diagrams to connect illnesses to a common point of contamination
Line Lists: Create and edit lists of information about each ill person in an outbreak, including relevant demographic, clinical, laboratory, and exposure data

During the third largest Salmonella outbreak in CDC PulseNet history, SEDRIC successfully managed a line list of hundreds of cases that grew exponentially every day as new infections were reported. As state health officials identified new cases and interviewed them, they were able to add exposures to the SEDRIC line list in real-time, allowing CDC to detect the signal for cucumbers early on in the investigation.

Who uses SEDRIC?

CDC’s partners who investigate foodborne and animal-related disease outbreaks have access to SEDRIC. More than 450 people are using SEDRIC, with users in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

CDC partners using SEDRIC include:

State and local health departments
U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service
U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Beyond enteric disease: The SEDRIC platform is providing a model for data integration systems for other groups at CDC involved in outbreak response.