Overview of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
Presenter
William Heisel, Director of Global Engagement, IHME
Data Sharing
Description
Zika virus was declared an international public health emergency by the World Health Organization on February 1, 2016. With Georgia hosting the world’s busiest international airport and a sub- tropical climate that can support the primary Zika virus vector, Aedes aegypti, and secondary vector, Aedes albopictus, the CDC designated Georgia as a high risk state for vector transmission. Faced with a lack of mosquito surveillance data to evaluate risk of autochthonous transmission and a few counties statewide that provide comprehensive mosquito control, the DPH rapidly scaled up a response. DPH updated existing mosquito surveillance and response plans targeted for West Nile Virus (WNV) and expanded capacity to areas that lacked previous surveillance targeting the Zika virus vector.
Objective
To describe the Georgia Department of Public Health’s (DPH) mosquito surveillance capacity before and after Zika virus was declared a public health emergency, review and compare mosquito surveillance results from 2015 to 2016, and evaluate the risk of autochthonous vector transmission of Zika virus based on 2016 surveillance data of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes.
Description
Implementation of the IDSR framework for fulfillment of the International Health Regulations (2005) ([IHR 2005]) has been challenging in Swaziland due to distribution of IDSR functions across units within the Strategic Information Department (SID) and other external departments within the Ministry of Health. We conducted a qualitative assessment and a Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis of current public health surveillance (PHS) support structures to inform implementation of IDSR.
Objective
To assess essential support functions for Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response(IDSR) in the Kingdom of Swaziland and make recommendations for a national IDSR Roadmap.
On April 20, 2017, the U.S. Census Bureau hosted a meeting with approximately 20 representatives from the health data community. Attendees included representatives from health information exchanges (HIEs), state and local public health departments, health data associations, and the Department of Health & Human Services (see Appendix A for list of participants). The purpose of the meeting was to explore the potential for a joint Census-HIE initiative: specifically, data maintained at the Census Bureau would be matched to records maintained by HIEs.
This paper continues an initiative conducted by the International Society for Disease Surveillance with funding from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to connect near-term analytical needs of public health practice with technical expertise from the global research community. The goal is to enhance investigation capabilities of day-to-day population health monitors.
This report summarize the work of eight Regional Syndromic Surveillance Data Sharing Workshops that were held in Health and Human Services (HHS) Regions 1-7 and 10 from May 2013 through June 2015. The ultimate aim was to reach all ten HHS regions by June 2016.
The HHS Region 10 workshop engaged nine participants from state and local public health departments in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington with experience in syndromic surveillance that ranged from less than 1 year to over 10 years. Representatives from Alaska, which is also in HHS Region 10, were unable to participate. Because the participants did not have access to actual emergency department (ED) syndromic surveillance data for sharing, the focus of the workshop was on building inter- jurisdictional understanding and sharing of practices.
Learning Objectives