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Blazes David

Description

Electronic disease surveillance systems can be extremely valuable tools; however, a critical step in system implementation is collection of data. Without accurate and complete data, statistical anomalies that are detected hold little meaning. Many people who have established successful surveillance systems acknowledge the initial data collection process to be one of the most challenging aspects of system implementation. These challenges manifest from varying degrees of economical, infrastructural, environmental, cultural, and political factors. Although some factors are not controllable, selecting a suitable collection framework can mitigate many of these obstacles. JHU/APL, with support from the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center, has developed a suite of tools, Suite for Automated Global bioSurveillance, that is adaptable for a particular deployment’s environment and takes the above factors into account. These subsystems span communication systems such as telephone lines, mobile devices, internet applications, and desktop solutions - each has compelling advantages and disadvantages depending on the environment in which they are deployed. When these subsystems are appropriately configured and implemented, the data are collected with more accuracy and timeliness.

 

Objective

This paper describes the common challenges of data collection and presents a variety of adaptable frameworks that succeed in overcoming obstacles in applications of public health and electronic disease surveillance systems and/or processes, particularly in resource-limited settings.

Submitted by hparton on
Description

More than a decade ago, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) developed the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (Enterprise ESSENCE), which is currently used by federal, state and local health authorities in the US. As emerging infections will most likely originate outside of the US (for example, SARS) the application of electronic biosurveillance is increasingly important in resource limited areas. In addition, such systems help governments respond to the recently modified International Health Regulations. Leveraging the experience gained in the development of Enterprise ESSENCE, JHU/APL has developed two freely available electronic biosurveillance systems suitable for use in resource-limited areas: Open ESSENCE (OE) and ESSENCE Desktop Edition (EDE).

 

Objective

This paper describes the development and early implementation of two freely available electronic biosurveillance software applications: OE, and EDE.

Submitted by hparton on
Description

OSS is rapidly becoming part of more public health applications. Mobile health (mHealth) initiatives and the need for electronic processes to support healthcare (eHealth) provide particularly good examples of government use of open source software. The growth of global and national mHealth and eHealth needs has spurred innovation in software development. In resource limited areas that do not have the infrastructure for sophisticated computing tools but where cellular technology is prevalent, mHealth solutions are able to move such communities into the digital age. Monetary costs of licensing and maintaining proprietary software systems have been common challenges to these end users, but OSS helps solve these problems. OSS has already been used to further certain global public health initiatives, but more needs to be done. For instance, the passage of the World Health Organization (WHO) International Health Regulations (IHR) in 2005 required member countries to implement certain core public health capacities by June 2012. The adoption more broadly of OSS has the potential to improve the efficiency of IHR implementation, and therefore global public health initiatives in general, because it provides a free, modifiable software option which can be altered to meet specific requirements.

Objective

Provide an overview of common open source software (OSS) licenses used in public health applications, and discuss how OSS can help improve global public health security.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

Syndromic surveillance can supplement diagnosis-based surveillance in resource-limited settings with limited laboratory infrastructure. Syndromic surveillance allows for early outbreak detection relative to traditional systems and enables community health monitoring during outbreaks. Monitoring and disease diagnosis can be strengthened using pre-diagnostic data and statistical algorithms to detect morbidity trends.

Alerta (2002-11) and Vigila (2011-present) are sequentially implemented electronic disease surveillance systems created by the Peruvian Navy to improve the detection, prevention, and control of disease outbreaks. The phone-, internet-, and radio-based reporting system now covers over 97.5% of the Navy population, encompassing 169 reporting establishments that treat active and retired service members, dependents, and civilian employees. Acute diarrheal disease, respiratory infections, and pneumonias are reported weekly, whereas specific notifiable diseases such as malaria, dengue, and tuberculosis are reported immediately after case detection.

Objective

To use data from the Peruvian Navy’s electronic syndromic surveillance systems to estimate the baseline incidence of acute diarrheal disease (ADD) and detect outbreaks among individuals accessing military medical facilities from 2009-13.

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on
Description

Multiple agencies are involved in global disease surveillance and coordination of activities is essential to achieve broad public health impact. Multiple examples of effective and collaborative initiatives exist. The WHO/AFRO developed Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) framework, adopted by 43 of the 46 AFRO member states and applied in other WHO regions, was the first framework designed to strengthen national disease surveillance and response systems. The WHO International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005 are an agreement between 196 countries to prevent, detect and respond to the international spread of disease. In 2013 CDC worked with Uganda and Vietnam to demonstrate the development of surveillance, laboratory, and emergency response center capacity and link data systems for six outbreak prone diseases. More recently, the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) was launched with the support of 28 countries, WHO, OIE and FAO just as Ebola was beginning to emerge in West Africa. This panel brings together CDC, local implementing partners, academic technical partners, and international non-government donor to discuss current and evolving strategies for prevention, detection, and response activities needed for global health security. 

Objective

The session will discuss strategies for outbreak prevention, detection, and response for global health security and explore how these activities inform both domestic and international initiatives. Innovations in epidemiology, laboratory, informatics, investment, and coordination for disease surveillance will be discussed. 

Submitted by Magou on