Active surveillance in healthcare is a proactive approach to identifying and monitoring health-related
events or diseases123. It involves the continuous, systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation
of health-related data needed for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health
practice1.
Option B, “Identifying disease outbreaks through public health contact tracing,” is an example of
active surveillance. Contact tracing is a key strategy for preventing the further spread of infectious
diseases. It involves identifying people who have an infectious disease (cases) and their contacts
(people who may have been exposed) and working with them to interrupt disease transmission12.
Option A, “analyzing laboratory data for disease testing utilization,” could be part of both active and
passive surveillance, depending on the context. However, it does not necessarily involve the
proactive steps typically associated with active surveillance13.
Option C, “analyzing infectious diseases based on hospital discharge final coding,” is more related to
passive surveillance, which involves the collection of data as they become available, or the data that
are passively received by health care providers or health information systems13.
Option D, “reporting of infectious diseases data quarterly to local health departments,” is also more
related to passive surveillance, as it involves regular reporting of health data from various sources13.
