Abstract: A method and apparatus of detecting a bio-emergency, including receiving patient health information at a plurality of health care facilities. The patient health information, preferably triage data, is transmitted simultaneously with the receiving step to a bio-surveillance network for pooling and further analysis. In particular, the patient health information is then compiled to create, for example, volumetric health data. The information preferably is transmitted over a multi-level network including a number of local health care facilities such as hospital emergency rooms, a number of regional repositories such as regional health departments, and a centralized recipient such as the CDC. The local health care facilities communicate vertically with the regional repositories that, in turn, communicate vertically with the centralized recipient and possibly horizontally with other regional repositories.