Skip to main content

Simbartl Loretta

Under leadership of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Operations, Security and Preparedness has established the Veterans Affairs Integrated Operations Center, with the goal of enhancing integration and analysis of data, and information from VA’s preparedness partners, both internal and external, for timely decision support.

Objective

The objective of this study is to describe Veterans Affairs Integrated Operations Center-enabled collaborations to enhance the synergy of relevant data/information from Veterans Affairs (VA) and non-VA partners for improved early warning, and situational awareness of infectious disease threats.

Referenced File
Submitted by uysz on

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the VA organization responsible for providing healthcare to over 5 million patients annually at 153 medical centers and over 900 outpatient clinics across the United States and U.S. territories. The VA Subject Matter Expertise Center for Biological Events (SMEC-bio) aims to leverage data in the extensive VHA electronic health records system and other sources to provide decision support to leadership for emerging infectious disease threats. Initial SMEC-bio work to examine this capability suggested that the increased incidence of dengue disease in the VHA patient population in PR in 2010 may be related to increased rainfall (see reference). This present work analyzes dengue incidence in the PR VHA patient population over time to understand disease trends and contribute to a framework for predictive analysis. This paper describes trend analyses of dengue and dengue-like illness in VHA patient data in Puerto Rico (PR) with the goal of developing mechanisms for improved early warning and situational awareness of infectious disease threats.

Submitted by elamb on

VA is the U.S. federal agency responsible for providing services to America’s Veterans. Within VA, VHA is the organization responsible for administration of health care services. VHA, with 152 Medical Centers and over 900 outpatient clinics located throughout the U.S. and territories, provided care to over 5 million patients in 2011. After the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, OSP, which oversees VA senior level briefing of preparedness issues, conceptualized and initiated SMEC-bio as a protocol-based mechanism to incorporate timely VHA subject matter expertise into leadership decision making via the VA IOC. Previous work has examined collection and integration of data from VA and interagency sources for trend and predictive analyses (1). This current work is an initial assessment of SMEC-bio reporting, which has been in development for the past year and functions on an ad hoc basis for decision support; needs and gaps can be assessed toward a formalized communication plan with the VA IOC.

Objective

To assess Reports sent from the United States VA Subject Matter Expertise Center for Biological Events (SMEC-bio) – a proof-of concept decision support initiative – to the VA Integrated Operations Center (VA IOC).

 

Submitted by uysz on
Subscribe to Simbartl Loretta