An evaluation of the use of medical examiner data for epidemiologic surveillance.

To assess the value of medical examiner (ME) data bases for use in epidemiologic surveillance, we compared data from non-injury deaths that became ME cases to all non-injury deaths occurring in 1984 among Fulton County, Georgia residents. The decedents in the ME series were younger and included a large proportion of Black males. Although not representative of all deaths in a community, ME data bases include demographic and medical information that is often difficult to collect in community studies and in other surveillance systems.