A Regional Syndromic Surveillance Data Sharing Workshop was held in Health and Human Services (HHS) Region 4 on May 12-13, 2015 at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, GA. This was the seventh workshop in a series, with the ultimate aim to reach all ten HHS regions. Although workshop specifics varied across regions, the overall objectives of each is to advance participants’ skill in syndromic surveillance practice, examine and share best practices in analytic methods, identify regional benefits and barriers to data sharing, an develop action steps for advancing inter-jurisdictional data sharing.
The Region 4 workshop participants included surveillance professionals from eight state public health agencies, one local public health agency, and the University of North Carolina. The workshop design used a self-directed learning and peer-to-peer problem solving and facilitation approach that included multiple points of participant contact including two pre-workshop calls, pre-and post workshop skill assessments, a two-day in-person workshop, and follow up support after the workshop (Appendix A).
In this HHS region, invitees identified asthma exacerbation during the Enterovirus D68 outbreak in 2014 as the focal surveillance topic for workshop activities and discussions. To prepare for the workshop, participants developed and shared analyses of asthma ED visit trends between August 3, 2014 and January 31, 2015. Participants envisioned that sharing SyS would provide a benefit for: improve their understanding of their own data and trends, regional situational awareness, their own SyS practice, and collaboration. Additionally, data sharing could help to better inform the public and improve appreciation of SyS as a surveillance tool.