Skip to main content

TreeScan for World Cup Surveillance

Project Overview

Large international events such as the 2026 FIFA World Cup increase the risk of infectious disease importation and spread. Traditional surveillance systems focus on predefined diseases or syndromes, limiting the ability to detect emerging or unexpected threats.

A key challenge in public health surveillance is detecting unexpected disease clusters and emerging health threats without requiring investigators to specify in advance what conditions to monitor. To meet this challenge, the New York City Health Department originated the use of TreeScan, which is software originally developed for vaccine and drug safety surveillance.

TreeScan addresses this challenge by scanning emergency department data for unusual patterns across ICD-10 diagnosis hierarchies and recent time windows. Using advanced statistical methods, it evaluates thousands of potential diagnosis and temporal clusters simultaneously, helping public health agencies identify emerging signals faster than in the past.

epiENGAGE is partnering with the New York City Health Department to support public health jurisdictions across the United States to deploy TreeScan through shared tools, standardized workflows, training, and a growing community of practice. The goal is to provide real-time situational awareness and strengthen outbreak detection capabilities during the 2026 FIFA World Cup and beyond.

Supporting a Safer World Cup

  • Providing early warning of potential outbreaks through advanced disease surveillance and daily monitoring.
  • Building local public health capacity through training, tools, and technical support.
  • Creating a network for collaboration and learning among public health practitioners across jurisdictions.
  • Supporting faster, more informed public health responses during the World Cup and beyond.