Where does surveillance collide?

In epidemiology, surveillance is the continuous, systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health data so that outbreaks can be detected and control measures triggered. Langmuir's 1963 The surveillance of communicable diseases of national importance set out the modern meaning, deliberately shifting the word from watching individual suspected cases to the ongoing monitoring of a disease across a whole population. The referent is an information system that tracks incidence over time and feeds public-health action, and it is a different construct from a body's internal patrol against abnormal cells or a state's monitoring of its citizens.[1]

Unit

Case counts and incidence of a condition tracked across a population over time

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Assessed by completeness, timeliness, and sensitivity of case reporting and by detection of departures from expected incidence

In immunology, immunosurveillance is the idea that the immune system continuously monitors the body's own tissues and recognises and eliminates cells that have turned malignant or become infected before they can establish disease. Burnet's 1970 The concept of immunological surveillance framed cancer defence as this constant internal policing by lymphocytes against altered self. The referent is an intrinsic biological function carried out by immune cells against transformed or infected cells, distinct from a population-level reporting system or the social monitoring of people, which share only the metaphor of keeping watch.[2]

Unit

The rate at which abnormal or infected cells are detected and cleared by immune effectors

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Inferred from elevated tumour incidence under immune deficiency and from the activity of cytotoxic and natural-killer cells against altered self

In surveillance studies, surveillance is the systematic, routine, and focused attention paid to personal details for the purpose of influencing, managing, or governing populations. Lyon's Surveillance society: Monitoring everyday life treats it as a defining feature of modern institutions, carried out through records, cameras, and data systems that sort and track people. The referent is an organised social practice of watching and categorising human subjects, a different construct from an epidemiological reporting system or a body's internal defence against its own abnormal cells.[3]

Unit

The scope and intensity with which personal data about a population are collected and acted on

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Characterised by the coverage, granularity, and institutional use of personal records and monitoring technologies