Present
The GeoSentinel dataset now contains over 88,384 patient records with over 115,419 final diagnoses from our global network of providers at 41 Sites on all continents , with annual growth of 15,000 records per year. These records cover traveler exposures in over 237 countries and territories demonstrating a global reach for surveillance. 507 diagnoses are monitored by region, by precise location, by time of exposure, and by risk group. Ongoing trends are tracked on a month-to-month basis for 60 key diagnoses.

Early 2008
Full surveillance sites are operational at new Sites in Paris, Madrid, and New York City West.

Late 2007
Full surveillance sites are operational at new Sites in Tokyo, Montreal, Cambridge UK, London, Oslo, Hamburg, Bronx-Lebanon Hospital (NY), and Hong Kong.

July 2007
The GeoSentinel database now contains records on 70,000 ill travelers, migrants, and refugees.

May 2007
Version 2.0 of the GeoSentinel Data Entry and Reporting web application goes live.  This second generation internet data entry and reporting system offers added functionality, ease of use, on-screen help, and smooth operation to our GeoSentinel Surveillance Sites.

September 2006
The GeoSentinel database now contains records on 60,000 ill travelers, migrants, and refugees.

May 2006
Cooperative agreement between ISTM and CDC that provides core infrastructure support for GeoSentinel extended for 5 years.

January 2006
A comprehensive analysis of 17,353 ill returned travelers from the developing world summarising the GeoSentinel experience from 1996-2004 is published (N Engl J Med 2006; 254:119-30).  The paper “Spectrum of Disease and Relation to Place of Exposure in Ill Returned Travelers” provides a blueprint for medical providers of what to look for when it comes to diagnosing sick travelers, based on where they have been.  Physicians can use the destination-specific differences to guide the diagnosis and treatment of ill travelers.

Late 2005
Full surveillance Sites begin operation in Ho Chi Minh City, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Ottawa.

August 2005
In response to the pandemic influenza threat, Geosentinel develops a response plan to allow focused enhanced surveillance for respiratory diagnoses immediately upon indications of the onset of human-to-human transmission. The plan includes daily visual review of the geographic exposures of every suspected respiratory illness submitted to GeoSentinel, and weekly examination of monthly trends in suspected pneumonias, atypical pneumonia, influenza, lower respiratory illness, and presenting respiratory complaints, a strategy that was tested during the SARS outbreak.

May 2005
The 8th Annual GeoSentinel Site Directors meeting meeting is held in Cascais, Portugal. Site Directors from 25 Sites on all 6 continents (see photo of participants) attend the 2-day scientific and strategic planning meeting.

January 2005
GeoSentinel in collaboration with CDC, Health Canada, and TropNet Europ identify falciparum malaria in significant numbers of resort travelers to the Dominican Republic. Publication of the joint report in the MMWR leads to changes in CDC recommendations for malaria chemoprophylaxis in travelers to this area.

January 2005
Post-tsunami, sentinel travelers with serious wound infections due to multi-resistant acinetobacter, aeromonas, and pseudomonas, as well as other salt-loving bacteria are reported from several individual GeoSentinel locations in developed countries with access to sophisticated diagnostic laboratories. This finding benefits aid workers in affected areas treating seriously injured survivors but who lack diagnostic capabilities.

Late 2004
A strategic expansion initiative adds 3 Asian Sites at important international gateways (Beijing, Singapore, Yokohama), bringing the total number of sites to 30.

June 2004
The GeoSentinel database now contains records on 40,000 ill travelers, migrants, and refugees.

September 2003
GeoSentinel Web-conferencing infrastructure inaugurated. Large numbers of GeoSentinel Sites and Network Members in many countries can now rapidly link together to share clinical observations, get private updates on outbreak situations, and facilitate direct interaction with health authorities. The first all-hands Site Directors Web-meeting is held with participants from 5 continents sharing live updates on SARS from Singapore, SARS from DGMQ/NCID, USA and West Nile virus.

March 2003
GeoSentinel is among the first to determine that SARS is not just a regional Asian situation when the Toronto site alerts GeoSentinel and the CDC’s Emergency Operations Center of their situation. GeoSentinel works with the CDC Emergency Operations Center on a daily basis to facilitate bi-directional information sharing with GeoSentinel’s global assets. For 2 months GeoSentinel issues 2-3 SARS updates per week to all sites, to all 2,000 ISTM members in 55 countries, as well as to all affiliated networks and entities. GeoSentinel Sites and Network members receive more thorough briefings. A total of 21 GeoSentinel patients were evaluated for SARS. The first CDC MMWR SARS summary uses GeoSentinel data to quantify baseline levels of respiratory illness in travelers.

February 2003
A GeoSentinel analysis of 22,000 patient records appears in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal indicating that after travelers diarrhea, respiratory illness is the most common affliction of travelers and warns that travelers are potentially very efficient vectors for emerging respiratory pathogens.

April 2002
GeoSentinel trend graph analysis which plots month-by-month trends for 60 key travel-related diagnoses using baselines compiled beginning in 1997 detects out of season dengue in travelers to Thailand. Rapid queries to GeoSentinel sites establishes travel to Koh Phangan as a possible risk spot and the Thai Ministry of Health begins to respond and intervene.

October 2001
Implemention of a separate password protected website for GeoSentinel Network members to allow direct entry of unusual or alarming cases meeting set criteria. In addition, Network members can use this restricted webspace to submit interesting leads which are then catalogued and built on over time, so that continuity for relatively rare events that may occur spaced over time can be established.

October 2001
The GeoSentinel Network Member program is inaugurated to complement the more intensive surveillance carried out by existing GeoSentinel Sites. By 2005 over 120 ISTM members in 23 countries with valuable patient populations, who are unable to participate in systematic surveillance but who are willing to more informally provide leads and contacts when they encounter patients having unusual clinical events, have become GeoSentinel Network Members.

September 2001
The GeoSentinel database now contains records on more than 20,000 ill travelers, migrants, and refugees.

May 2001
Internet based data entry begins. By 2005 less than 10% of patient records are being submitted by fax. The data collection system is housed on a secure Internet-based system that is protected by the Secure Data Network (SDN) firewall at CDC. Sites access the system using random numbers generated by portable token-based authentication and a combination of user logins and passwords. The data resides on a SQL Server Database 7.0 and runs on an Internet Information Server (IIS). All sites have the ability to enter or update their patient records online, download their own site-specific data in MS-ACCESS, run canned reports and query their own data in real time.

March 2001
A public website at <www.istm.org/geosentinel/main.html> is inaugurated to highlight current GeoSentinel Alerts and to provide concise summaries of important GeoSentinel findings to all ISTM members as well as to the public.

September 2000
In response to an urgent query from London regarding ill returning participants in the Borneo Eco-Challenge 2000 Adventure Race, the GeoSentinel Query-Response mechanism ascertains near simultaneous cases of leptospirosis appearing at multiple global locations. Within 12 hours of the initial query, a wide broadcast alert is disseminated through Pro-Med, TravelMed, TropMed, and the IDSA EINet to warn race participants still in the incubation period. GeoSentinel sites interface with public health authorities in USA, Canada, and Australia to provide contact information for all at risk individuals.

June 2000
The GeoSentinel database now contains records on 10,000 ill travelers, migrants, and refugees.

May 1999
Cooperative agreement between ISTM and CDC that provides core infrastructure support for GeoSentinel extended for 7 years.

September 1997
GeoSentinel goes "live" at participating surveillance sites using a single-page faxable form that links destination, date of travel, and disease diagnosis in returning travelers. Data from all sites are centrally aggregated at the Atlanta data center.

1996-1997
Pilot studies are run and result in a refined surveillance instrument usable by practicing clinicians. International surveillance sites begin to join the network.

May 1996
GeoSentinel awarded competitive funding through the Division of Quarantine, National Centers for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under an initiative to strengthen surveillance and response to emerging pathogens.

July 1995
GeoSentinel initiated in Atlanta, USA by M. Cetron, P. Kozarsky and D. Freedman as a working group of nine US-based ISTM member travel clinics collaborating as an emerging infections sentinel network of travel/tropical medicine clinics. ISTM provides seed money.