The Rapid Syndrome Validation Project (RSVP) is a collaboration of several institutions: Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, the University of New Mexico Department of Emergency Medicine, and the NM Department of Health Office of Epidemiology. RSVP is a system that operates at the intersection of
individual health care providers, public health and bioterrorism. Physicians quickly enter clinical and demographic information on patients exhibiting symptoms and signs of the syndromes of interest. It provides early warning and response to emerging biological threats, as well as emerging epidemics and
diseases. RSVP provides real time clinical information to the provider and any other potential user such as the DOH, about current symptoms, disease prevalence and location. The system also serves as a mechanism for the Department of Health to inform health care providers ofhealth alerts and to facilitate the process ofcollecting data on reportable diseases.

We describe here the purpose and the architecture ofa network-based surveillance system that is currently implemented in an Emergency Department.