Sentinel Surveillance Program

Statewide data to track circulating respiratory pathogens in Michigan is collected by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Bureau of Laboratories’ (BOL) sentinel surveillance program. The sentinel surveillance program is a volunteer-based program through which clinics and health systems in Michigan provide a limited number of specimen to the BOL for processing and generation of pathogen activity reports. Unfortunately, participation in the program is not as robust as needed to provide an adequate picture of disease activity in the state. Numerous areas of the state, including the northern regions of the lower peninsula and the upper peninsula, have little to no data submitted to the state.
To enhance sentinel surveillance data in the State of Michigan, the Michigan Pharmacists Association, the Collaboration for Advance Pharmacy Enterprises (CAPE) at Ferris State University College of Pharmacy, and the MDHHS BOL are launching a project aimed at enrolling community pharmacies sentinel surveillance sites. We are looking for volunteer pharmacies to participate in a pilot program for the 2024-25 respiratory season. Sites will be provided materials and training to collect specimen for individuals with symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection and asked to submit 10-20 specimen to the MDHHS BOL monthly. These data will be used to generate pathogen activity reports for various regions in Michigan.

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