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Data Collection

To meet the long-term needs of public health and social development of China, it is in urgency to establish a comprehensive response system and crisis management mechanism for public health emergencies. Syndromic surveillance system has great advantages in promoting early detection of epidemics and reducing the burden of disease outbreak confirmation. The effective method to set up the syndromic surveillance system is to modify existing case report system, improve the organizational structures and integrate new function with the traditional system.

 

Objective

To understand the structure and capacity of current infection disease surveillance system, and to provide baseline information for developing syndromic surveillance system in rural China.

Submitted by hparton on

Accurately gauging the health status of a population during an event of public health significance (e.g. hurricanes, H1N1 2009 pandemic) in support of emergency response and situation awareness efforts can be a challenge for established public health surveillance systems in terms of geographic and population coverage as well as the appropriateness of health indicators. The demand for timely, accurate, and event-specific data can require the rapid development of new data assets to “fill-in” existing information gaps to better characterize the scope, scale, magnitude, and population health impact of a given event within a very narrow time-window. Such new data assets may be concurrently under development and evaluation while being used to support response efforts. Recent examples include the “drop-in” surveillance processes deployed at evacuation centers following Hurricane Katrina1 and the illness and injury surveillance systems established for response workers during the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill response. During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic response, CDC acquired access to data from several national-level health information systems that previously had been un-vetted as public health information sources. These sources provided data extracts from massive administrative or electronic medical records (EMR) based in hospital and primary care settings. It was hoped that such data could supplement existing influenza surveillance systems and aid in the characterization of the pandemic. Few of these new data sources had formal documentation or concise information on the underlying populations and geographies represented.

 

Objective

To describe data management and analytic processes undertaken to rapidly acquire and use previously unavailable data during a public health emergency response.

Submitted by hparton on

Vietnam has routinely monitored HIV sero-prevalence among key populations through its HIV sentinel surveillance system (HSS). In 2010, this system was updated to include a behavioral component (HSS+) among people who inject drugs, female sex workers, and men who have sex with men. HSS+ has historically used a paper-based questionnaire for data collection. At the end of the survey, provincial data were manually entered into computers using EpiData Entry forms (http://www.epidata.dk/) and submitted to the Vietnam Authority of HIV/AIDS Control (VAAC). As a result, feedback to provinces on data issues was not provided until after fieldwork completion. One recent survey used tablets for data collection and found that it saved time, required fewer staff, and reduced costs compared to paper-based data collection. In 2017, Vietnam introduced tablet for behavioral data collection in HSS+ to improve data quality, resource saving, and to provide more timely access to data.

Objective:

To describe the implementation process, successes, challenges, and lessons learned of the application of tablet for data collection and data system in HIV sentinel surveillance in Vietnam.

Submitted by elamb on

While UC does not have a standard definition, it can generally be described as the delivery of ambulatory medical care outside of a hospital emergency department (ED) on a walk-in basis, without a scheduled appointment, available at extended hours, and providing an array of services comparable to typical primary care offices. UC facilities represent a growing sector of the United States healthcare industry, doubling in size between 2008 and 2011. The Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA) estimates that UC facilities had 160 million patient encounters in 2013. This compares to 130.4 million patient encounters in EDs in 2013, as reported by the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Public Health (PH) is actively working to broaden syndromic surveillance to include urgent care data as more individuals use these services. PH needs justification when reaching out to healthcare partners to get buy-in for collecting and reporting UC data.

Objective:

Provide justification for the collection and reporting of urgent care (UC) data for public health syndromic surveillance.

Submitted by elamb on

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).

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on

Public health agencies have to work with a several disparate systems, a lack of robust reporting capabilities, and a lack of standardized surveillance, along with inherent funding challenges. The purpose of this analysis is to help state and local health departments explore the potential of available surveillance systems to meet their needs, framing the landscape of the EDSS world so that they can make informed surveillance IT decisions. The analysis represents a point-in-time snapshot of the functionality of these systems.

Submitted by uysz on

This presentation will focus on health managment information systems (HMIS) and surveillance activities in resource limited settings. The presenters will discuss how systems could be enhanced using smart phones or other innovative technologies and provide examples of ongoing applications in the field.

Panelists

Marion McNabb, MPH, DrPh Candidate, Program Manager, DGAP, Center for Global Health and Development, Boston University School of Public Health

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