Assessing the essence biosurveillance system results of a user survey

Abstract

The Navy and Marine Corps use the ESSENCE system for early detection of diseases and other public health threats to the force and for situational awareness on the location and spread of such diseases. In accordance with BUMEDINST 6220.12B, the NMCPHC sponsored a survey to better understand ESSENCE account holders' training on the system, employment of the system, and their perceived value of the system. The survey was sent to 225 Navy and Marine Crops users with either an active or a disabled ESSENCE account. Ultimately, 143 of the users responded to the survey for a 64 percent response rate. Survey findings conclude that, overall, nine out of 10 ESSENCE account holders, past and present, favor using the system, find it valuable, and believe the training they received has been adequate. However, users raised four issues: 1) it takes an excessive amount of time to obtain an account, 2) passwords are required to be changed too often, 3) there are too many miscodings leading to excessive false positive signals, and 4) training and training tools are insufficient.