Gordon Scott

Public health is at a precipice of increasing demand for the consumption and analysis of large amounts of disparate data, the centralization of local and state IT offices, and the compartmentalization of programmatic technology solutions. Public health informatics needs differ across programmatic areas, but may have commonalities across jurisdictions. Initial development of the PHCP was launched with the goal of providing a shared infrastructure for state and local jurisdictions enabling the development of interoperable systems and distributed analytical methods with common sources of data. The PHCP is being designed to leverage recent successes with cloud-based technology in public health.

Success of the PHCP is dependent on the involvement of state and local public health jurisdictions in the transparent development and future direction of the platform. Equally critical to success is the selection of appropriate technology, consideration of various governance structures, and full understanding of the legal implications of a shared platform model.

Objective

To update the public health practice community on the continuing development of the Public Health Community Platform (PHCP).

Spurred by recent advances in PH informatics, the implementation of the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Records Incentive Programs (Meaningful Use), and the opportunities provided by the availability of the redesigned BioSense program, SyS has become an increasingly important component of the biosurveillance enterprise. Knowing how and when jurisdictions use SyS, as well as challenges faced, allows ISDS, ASTHO, CDC, and other partners to provide relevant CBA – information transfer, training, and technical assistance – to further biosurveillance practice.

Objective

To present the results of a nationwide survey designed to assess the syndromic surveillance (SyS) practices and capacity-building assistance (CBA) needs of U.S. state public health authorities (PHAs).

One of ASTHO’s key goals is to help its jurisdictions meet member needs for technical assistance, including making informed decisions about their syndromic surveillance options. To help them make such decisions, ASTHO worked with Booz Allen to create a decision analysis model, which factors in both a Value of Information (VOI) model and a Return on Investment (ROI) model. The model provides a dashboard of its outputs, which is a simple, easy-to-understand comparative view of multiple syndromic surveillance investment scenarios.

Objective

Provide a demonstration of the recently developed prototype decision analysis model for syndromic surveillance investments. The roundtable will be used to discuss the model, obtain feedback on its usefulness, and brainstorm future uses and improvements.

The PHCP is a community-led initiative to provide shared infrastructure, services, and applications to the public health community as solutions for complex public health informatics problems. The project has progressed by establishing a governance structure led by an executive committee representative of the public health practice community. The executive committee has established the strategic path for the continued development of the PHCP and prioritized eCR as the initial use case for implementation.

Objective

To inform the community on the progress of electronic case reporting (eCR) utilizing the shared infrastructure and applications of the Public Health Community Platform (PHCP).

Sharing public health (PH) data and practices among PH authorities enhances epidemiological capacities and expands situational awareness at multiple levels. Ease of data sharing through the BioSense application, now part of the National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP), and the increased use of SyS nationwide have provided opportunities for region-level sharing of SyS data. In addition, there is a need to build workforce competence in SyS given powerful new information technology that can improve surveillance system capacities. Peer-to-peer learning builds the relationships and trust among individuals and organizations that are required for inter jurisdictional data sharing.

Objective

Promote interjurisdictional syndromic surveillance (SyS) data sharing practices with a training model that engages participants in collaborative learning.