TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to address the urgent need for guiding the construction of information systems for disease surveillance and early warning, given the latest efforts of the report system of public health information over China.Design/methodology/approach– A system framework for disease surveillance and early warning, based on disease clustering test and cluster detection techniques, geographical information system, network and communication is conceived. Through geographical surveillance analysis of severe acute respiratory syndrome occurring in Beijing in 2003, an application example of the framework is illustrated.Findings– Through approaches such as integrating spatial‐time clustering test and cluster detection algorithms, spatial visualization, computer network, wireless communication, it is feasible to build a systematic, automatic, real‐time surveillance and early warning system for prevention and control of disease.Research limitations/implications– The present study provides an underlying framework for the development of disease surveillance and early warning system enabling data acquisition, data analysis and alarm publishing.Originality/value– The framework integrates report system of public health information, GIS and disease clustering test and cluster detection techniques into an application, which will significantly enhance the resilience of healthcare facilities. It is supposed to be implemented in near future and provides fundamental support for nation‐wide disease surveillance and early warning. VL - 2 IS - 3 SN - 1759-5908 DO - 10.1108/17595901111167123 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/17595901111167123 AU - Zhong Shaobo AU - Sun Zhanhui AU - Huang Quanyi AU - Cao Chunxiang ED - Nebil Achour ED - Andrew D F Price PY - 2011 Y1 - 2011/01/01 TI - A framework for geographical surveillance of disease in China T2 - International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 256 EP - 267 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -