Which program is a data-sharing program to facilitate surveillance of unusual patterns or clusters of disease in the United States?

• A. BioSense
• B. Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network
• C. EpiInfo
• D. HealthMap

Answer: (A)

BioSense is a CDC program that collects and shares near real-time health data from hospitals, clinics, and other care settings to monitor for unusual disease patterns or clusters across the United States. It provides a centralized data-sharing system for syndromic surveillance, enabling public health officials to detect signals quickly and assess potential outbreaks. This US-focused, data-sharing approach is what sets BioSense apart for surveillance of unusual patterns in the U.S. The other options have different scopes or purposes: the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network coordinates international outbreak responses rather than a centralized U.S. data-sharing surveillance system; EpiInfo is a software tool for data management and analysis, not ongoing data sharing for surveillance; HealthMap aggregates informal sources for global outbreak detection, not a formal U.S. surveillance data-sharing program.