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Paladini Marc

Description

Previous reports have demonstrated the media’s influence on ED visits in situations such as dramatized acetaminophen overdose, media report of celebrity suicides, television public announcements for early stroke care and cardiac visits following President Clinton’s heart surgery. No previous study has demonstrated the influence of media-publicized trauma on ED visits. On 16 March 2009, the actress Natasha Richardson suffered a traumatic brain injury leading to her death on 18 March; these events were widely publicized by national news sources. The health departments of New York City, Boston, Duval County and Seattle monitor ED visits daily, and capture 95, 100, 100 and 95% of all ED visits, respectively. The data collected include basic demographic information, chief complaint and in some cases ICD-9 diagnosis codes.

Objective

This study describes an increase in head trauma-related visits to emergency departments (ED) in New York City, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Duval County, Florida; and Seattle, Washington following the widespread media coverage of actress Natasha Richardson’s head injury and subsequent fatal epidural hematoma.

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on
Description

Previous reports have demonstrated the media’s influence on emergency departments (ED) visits in situations such as dramatized acetaminophen overdose, media report of celebrity suicides, television public announcements for early stroke care and cardiac visits following President Clinton’s heart surgery. No previous study has demonstrated the influence of media-publicized trauma on ED visits. On 16 March 2009, the actress Natasha Richardson suffered a traumatic brain injury leading to her death on 18 March; these events were widely publicized by national news sources. The health departments of New York City, Boston, Duval County and Seattle monitor ED visits daily, and capture 95, 100, 100 and 95% of all ED visits, respectively. The data collected include basic demographic information, chief complaint and in some cases ICD-9 diagnosis codes.

 

Objective

This study describes an increase in head trauma-related visits to ED in New York City, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Duval County, Florida; and Seattle, Washington following the widespread media coverage of actress Natasha Richardson’s head injury and subsequent fatal epidural hematoma.

Submitted by hparton on
Description

Data-driven decision-making is a cornerstone of public health emergency response; therefore, a highly-configurable and rapidly deployable data capture system with built-in quality assurance (QA; e.g., completeness, standardization) is critical. Additionally, to keep key stakeholders informed of developments during an emergency, data need to be shared in a timely and effective manner. Dynamic data visualization is a particularly useful means of sharing data with healthcare providers and the public.2 During Spring 2018, detection of canine influenza H3N2 among dogs in NYC caused concern in the veterinary community. Canine influenza is a highly contagious respiratory infection caused by an influenza A virus.3 However, no central database existed in NYC to monitor the outbreak and no single agency was responsible for data capture. Our team at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) partnered with the NYC Veterinary Medical Association (VMA) to monitor the canine influenza H3N2 outbreak by building a web-based reporting platform and interactive dashboard.

Objective: The objectives of this project were to rapidly build and deploy a web-based reporting platform in response to a canine influenza H3N2 outbreak in New York City (NYC) and provide aggregate data back to the veterinary community as an interactive dashboard.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

The Distribute project began in 2006 as a distributed, syndromic surveillance demonstration project that networked state and local health departments to share aggregate emergency department-based influenza-like illness (ILI) syndrome data. Preliminary work found that local systems often applied syndrome definitions specific to their regions; these definitions were sometimes trusted and understood better than standardized ones because they allowed for regional variations in idiom and coding and were tailored by departments for their own surveillance needs. Originally, sites were asked to send whatever syndrome definition they had found most useful for monitoring ILI. Places using multiple definitions were asked to send their broader, higher count syndrome. In 2008, sites were asked to send both a broad syndrome, and a narrow syndrome specific to ILI.

 

Objective

To describe the initial phase of the ISDS Distribute project ILI syndrome standardization pilot.

Submitted by hparton on
Description

The New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene monitors visits daily from 49 of 54 NYC emergency departments (EDs), capturing 95% of all ED visits. ED visits for influenza-like illness (ILI) have reflected influenza activity in NYC, better than the more broadly defined fever/flu and respiratory syndromes, but the correlation with H1N1 is unknown. 

Laboratory-confirmed influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) were made reportable in NYC in February 2008. DOHMH receives electronic reports of positive tests. 

As part of 2009–10 influenza surveillance, five hospitals were selected for ‘sentinel’ surveillance of hospitalized influenza cases, to test all patients with a respiratory condition for influenza. Sentinel hospitals ensured that patient medical record numbers were in the daily ED syndromic file and in the electronic laboratory reports.

 

Objective

To determine the correlation of the ILI syndrome with laboratory-confirmed H1N1 and RSV during the October 2009 to March 2010 H1N1 season in NYC.

Submitted by hparton on
Description

Syndromic surveillance systems were designed for early outbreak and bioterrorism event detection. As practical experience shaped development and implementation, these systems became more broadly used for general surveillance and situational awareness, notably influenza-like illness (ILI) monitoring. Beginning in 2006, ISDS engaged partners from state and local health departments to build Distribute, a distributed surveillance network for sharing de-identified aggregate emergency department syndromic surveillance data through existing state and local public health systems. To provide more meaningful cross-jurisdictional comparisons and to allow valid aggregation of syndromic data at the national level, a pilot study was conducted to assess implementation of a common ILI syndrome definition across Distribute.

 

Objective

Assess the feasibility and utility of adopting a common ILI syndrome across participating jurisdictions in the ISDS Distribute project.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) collects data daily from 50 of 61 (82%) emergency departments (EDs) in NYC representing 94% of all ED visits (avg daily visits ~10,000). The information collected includes the date and time of visit, age, sex, home zip code and chief complaint of each patient. Observations are assigned to syndromes based on the chief complaint field and are analyzed using SaTScan to identify statistically significant clusters of syndromes at the zip code and hospital level. SaTScan employs a circular spatial scan statistic and clusters that are not circular in nature may be more difficult to detect. FlexScan employs a flexible scan statistic using an adjacency matrix design.

 

Objective

To use the NYC DOHMH's ED syndromic surveillance data to evaluate FleXScan’s flexible scan statistic and compare it to results from the SaTScan circular scan. A second objective is to improve cluster detection in by improving geographic characteristics of the input files.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

In 2007-2008, the authors surveyed public health officials in 59 state, territorial, and selected large local jurisdictions in the United States regarding their conduct and use of syndromic surveillance. Fifty-two (88%) responded, representing areas comprising 94% of the United States population. Forty-three (83%) of the respondents reported conducting syndromic surveillance for a median of 3 years (range = 2 months to 13 years). Emergency department visits were the most common data source, used by 84%, followed by outpatient clinic visits (49%), over-the-counter medication sales (44%), calls to poison control centers (37%), and school absenteeism (35%). Among those who provided data on staffing and contract costs, the median number of staff dedicated to alert assessment was 1.0 (range 0.05 to 4), to technical system maintenance 0.6 (range zero to 3); and, among the two-thirds who reported using external contracts to support system maintenance, median annual contract costs were $95,000 (range = %5,500 to $1 million). Respondents rated syndromic surveillance as most useful for seasonal influenza monitoring, of intermediate usefulness for jurisdiction-wide trend monitoring and ad hoc analyses, and least useful for detecting typical community outbreaks. Nearly all plan to include syndromic surveillance as part of their surveillance strategy in the event of an influenza pandemic. Two thirds are either "highly" or "somewhat" likely to expand their use of syndromic surveillance within the next 2 years. Respondents from three state health departments who reported they did not conduct syndromic surveillance noted that local health departments in their states independently conducted syndromic surveillance. Syndromic surveillance is used widely throughout the United States. Although detection of outbreaks initially motivated investments in syndromic surveillance, other applications, notably influenza surveillance, are emerging as the main utility.

Submitted by elamb on
Submitted by elamb on