Clean, analyze, and map epidemiologic data
A free, browser-based toolkit for outbreak investigation and routine surveillance analysis. Your data stay on your computer, and only you can see them.
What it does
LineList takes a line list, survey, or surveillance extract from a CSV or Excel file and gives you the standard steps of an analysis in one place: check the data, describe them, map them, and produce figures you can put in a report.
It runs entirely in the browser. There is no account, no installation, and no server to send data to, which makes it usable on a field laptop or a locked-down workstation.
- Import CSV and Excel files, or paste straight from a spreadsheet. Worksheet selection and date-format handling are built in.
- Check quality with duplicate detection, including fuzzy matching for typos, alongside date-consistency, range, and completeness checks.
- Fix records in place, add derived variables, filter the line list, and keep a full edit log of what changed.
- Build epi curves from your choice of date and time columns, bin size, and stratification, then annotate them by clicking the chart.
- Map cases as spot, area, or sketch maps, with coordinate quality checks and jittering applied by default.
- Calculate measures including frequencies, cross-tabulations, attack rates, risk ratios, and odds ratios for cohort or case-control designs, with a warning when a table is too sparse for the test to hold.
- Produce figures from twelve chart types and export to PNG, SVG, Excel, CSV, or GeoJSON.
- Save and reopen a project file that carries your datasets, edit history, and the analysis you set up, for a backup, a transfer between computers, or a handoff to a colleague.
- Train residents with three synthetic datasets and step-by-step tutorials for cleaning, epi curves, spot maps, and 2×2 analysis.
From raw file to finished figure
Shown with the bundled synthetic foodborne outbreak. The same tools summarize monthly surveillance reports and survey data.
Only you can see your data
LineList works like a program running on your own computer, not a website you send files to. When you import a file, your browser opens it where it is: nothing is sent to linelist.org, and there is no shared database or cloud storage. Other people who visit this site see the built-in samples and their own files, never yours.
Your work is saved in this browser, on this computer, so it is still here when you come back. If other people use the same computer and browser, delete your datasets when you finish. Map backgrounds are fetched from a public tile service, which sees the area being viewed but none of your data.
Do not import protected health information or direct identifiers. De-identify datasets and follow your organization's policies before use.
About this project
LineList is built and maintained by Ellen Yard for FETP residents, field epidemiologists, and public-health teams who need dependable results without a programming workflow.
- LicenseMIT. Free to use, modify, and self-host.
- Source codegithub.com/ellenyard/epikit
- AccountsNone. No sign-up, no tracking, no dataset upload.
- Sample dataSynthetic foodborne outbreak, monthly disease surveillance, and child nutrition survey
- MethodsRisk ratios, odds ratios, attack rates, chi-square and Fisher's exact test are checked against published worked examples (the CDC Oswego outbreak, Fisher's tea-tasting table, standard chi-square critical values) on every change.
- BrowsersCurrent Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari (Chrome and Edge 111+, Firefox 128+, Safari 16.4+).
- FeedbackNoticed an error or have a suggestion? Email ellen.yard@gmail.com. Please don't send datasets or screenshots that contain identifiable information.
- AffiliationAn independent project. Not an official product of, or endorsed by, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.