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Hamby Teresa

Description

In the summer of 2013, the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) began planning for Super Bowl XLVIII to be held on February 2, 2014, in Met Life Stadium, located in the Meadowlands of Bergen County. Surveillance and epidemiology staff in the Communicable Disease Service (CDS) provided expertise in planning for disease surveillance activities leading up to, during, and after the game. A principal component of NJDOH’s Super Bowl surveillance activities included the utilization of an existing online syndromic surveillance system, EpiCenter. EpiCenter is a system developed by Health Monitoring Systems, Inc. (HMS) that incorporates statistical management and analytical techniques to process health-related data in real time. As of February, 2014, 75 of New Jersey’s 81 acute care and satellite emergency departments (EDs) were connected to this system. CDS staff primarily used EpiCenter to monitor ED visits for unusual activity and disease outbreaks during this event. In addition, NJDOH and HMS implemented enhanced reports and expanded monitoring of visit complaints.

Objective

To describe the surveillance planning and activities for a largescale event (Super Bowl XLVIII) using New Jersey’s syndromic surveillance system (EpiCenter).

 

Submitted by Magou on
Description

Real-time emergency department (ED) data are currently received from 78 of 80 New Jersey acute care and satellite EDs by Health Monitoring Systems Inc.’s (HMS) EpiCenter system. EpiCenter collects, manages and analyzes ED registration data for syndromic surveillance, and provides alerts to state and local health departments for surveillance anomalies. After the 2012 Superstorm Sandy devastated parts of New Jersey, NJDOH initiated a plan to develop severe weather surveillance using EpiCenter to provide the Department with the ability to track both health and mental health concerns during adverse weather conditions to alert the public about emerging health hazards.

Objective

To describe the development and validation of a mental health classification to track emergency department visits for potential needed public health response during severe weather events.

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on
Description

Hurricane ‘Superstorm’ Sandy struck New Jersey on October 29, 2012, causing harm to the health of New Jersey residents and billions of dollars of damage to businesses, transportation, and infrastructure. Monitoring health outcomes for increased illness and injury due to a severe weather event is important in measuring the severity of conditions and the efficacy of state response, as well as in emergency response preparations for future severe weather events. Following the experience with Hurricane Sandy and the foreseeable need to be prepared for future severe weather events, NJDOH initiated a project to develop a suite of 20 indicators in EpiCenter, an online system which collects emergency department chief complaint data in realtime, to perform syndromic surveillance of extreme weather–related conditions.

Objective

To introduce and describe methods for evaluating and refining custom classifier keyword lists for syndromic surveillance of several post-severe weather event conditions and to report findings from New Jersey’s syndromic surveillance of selected conditions in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

 

Submitted by Magou on

Following Hurricane Superstorm Sandy, the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) developed indicators to enhance syndromic surveillance for extreme weather events in EpiCenter, an online system that collects and analyzes real-time chief complaint emergency department (ED) data and classifies each visit by indicator or syndrome.

Submitted by uysz on

In the first quarter of 2012, the CDC awarded 9 health departments BioSense Challenge Grants to accelerate local system integration with BioSense 2.0. On Friday, October 4th from 1:00-2:00 pm EDT, ISDS and the BioSense Redesign Team will host a BioSense Redesign webinar featuring reports from two 2012 Challenge Grant recipients. During this webinar, you will learn about the solutions that surveillance professionals in New Jersey and Maine developed with their challenge grants.

Description

In New Jersey, real-time emergency department (ED) data are currently received from EDs by Health Monitoring Systems Inc.’s (HMS) EpiCenter, which collects, manages and analyzes ED registration data for syndromic surveillance, and provides alerts to state and local health departments for surveillance anomalies.

EpiCenter receives pre-diagnostic chief complaint data from 78 of 80 acute care and satellite EDs. The need for more specific information raises the possibility that other data elements from EDs such as triage notes can be of utility in detecting outbreaks without a significant delay. This study evaluates the inclusion of triage notes in EpiCenter to detect a recent increased usage of synthetic cannabinoids. At the time of this evaluation, three New Jersey hospitals were providing triage notes in their EpiCenter data.

Objective

Describe the inclusion of triage notes into a syndromic surveillance system to enhance population health surveillance activities.

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on
Description

Hurricane ‘Superstorm’ Sandy struck New Jersey on October 29, 2012, causing harm to the health of New Jersey residents and billions of dollars of damage to businesses, transportation, and infrastructure. Monitoring health outcomes for increased illness and injury due to a severe weather event is important in measuring the severity of conditions and the efficacy of state response, as well as in emergency response preparations for future severe weather events. Following the experience with Hurricane Sandy, NJDOH initiated a project to develop a suite of 19 indicators, known as the Severe Weather Classifier (SWC) in EpiCenter, an online system which collects emergency department chief complaint data in real-time, to perform syndromic surveillance of extreme weather–related conditions. NJDOH has since used these classifiers in more recent events to monitor for weather-related visits to storm-affected area emergency departments (ED’s).

In June, 2015, a squall line of damaging thunderstorms, known as a “bow echo,” caused downed wires and multi-day power outages in Camden and Gloucester counties in southern New Jersey. Almost exactly seven months later, in January, 2016, Winter Storm Jonas dropped more than a foot of snow over New Jersey. These events provided an opportunity to assess the indicators within SWC. 

Objective

To report the results of the application of New Jersey’s Severe Weather Classifier in New Jersey’s syndromic surveillance system during two extreme weather events. 

Submitted by Magou on
Description

In New Jersey, Health Monitoring Systems Inc.’s (HMS) EpiCenter collects chief complaint data for syndromic surveillance from 79 of 80 emergency departments (ED). Using keyword algorithms, these visits are classified into syndrome categories for monitoring unusual health events.

HAIs are infections that patients acquire while they are receiving treatment for a health condition in a health care setting. Following the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) Communicable Disease Service (CDS) started recruiting EDs to include triage note data in addition to chief complaint data to enhance surveillance capability for Ebola and other HAIs. Research by the University of North Carolina suggests triage note data improve the ability to detect illness of interest by fivefold. Currently, there are three NJ EDs with triage note data in EpiCenter along with ICD 10 codes which can be used for comparison.

This pilot study will assess whether infections following a surgical procedure can be captured in triage note data along with ICD codes. Also, this evaluation will determine if triage note data can be used to create HAI custom classifications for syndromic surveillance. These classifications can potentially be used by surveillance and/or preparedness personnel and local health departments, as well as hospitals, to better prepare for detecting and preventing HAIs that are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the U.S. 

Objective

Evaluate the usage of triage note data from EpiCenter, a syndromic surveillance system utilized by New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH), to enhance Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) surveillance for infections following a surgical procedure. 

Submitted by Magou on