The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP), virtually convened the 2020 Syndromic Surveillance Symposium from November 17-19, 2020. The event was held during the following dates and times:
Emergency Response
On Wednesday, August 19, 2020, CSTE's Disaster Epidemiology Subcommittee hosted its monthly subcommittee call with a presentation on the use of earth observation data within syndromic surveillance systems. Call information and resources have been included below.
Description
On January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, killing 4230 000 persons and placing an estimated 1.5 million into internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. IDPs are at increased risk for communicable diseases resulting from unhealthy living conditions. The Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) established the internally displaced persons surveillance system (IDPSS) to detect outbreaks and characterize disease trends within these camps.
IDPSS gathers data on IDPs seen in clinics run by nongovernmental agencies (NGOs). Physician tally sheets are totaled and sent to the MSPP by E-mail or on paper for those without internet connection. Each Monday, analyses of surveillance data through the preceding week are distributed. Reports, guidelines, and forms are sent to MSPP partners and NGOs through the system’s Google group (Mountain View, CA, USA), an internet-based discussion forum.
Objective
We evaluated the IDPSS to determine its suitability for use during a complex humanitarian emergency.
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Description
HealthMap is a real-time disease epidemic intelligence tracking and visualization system that collects information from general news media, individual first-hand reports and public health sources around the world. Gaps in this effort clearly occur during times of crisis where traditional mechanisms may be dismantled. Clinical information gathered by deployed physicians can play a key role in providing early insight on emerging public health threats. We developed OutbreakMD to gather such information in real-time and combine with existing HealthMap informal and formal surveillance techniques.
Objective
OutbreakMD is a mobile Web application that was piloted in post-earthquake Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The application is designed for collecting, organizing and visualizing clinical information from individual patients to better monitor emerging infectious disease in disaster situations, in situations with limited public health infrastructure and unreliable Internet connectivity
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Description
On 20 April 2010, an explosion on an offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico led to a prolonged uncontrolled release of crude oil. Both clean-up workers and coastal residents were potentially at high risk for respiratory and other acute health effects from exposure to crude oil and its derivatives, yet there was no surveillance system available to monitor these health effects. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) conducts routine surveillance for biological threats using the Electronic Surveillance System for Early Notification of Community Based Epidemics (ESSENCE). ESSENCE captures specific patient care visit ICD-nine codes belonging to selected conditions that could represent a biological threat. VA operates 153 medical centers and over 1000 free standing patient care facilities across the United States. We describe the adaptation of ESSENCE to allow surveillance of health conditions potentially related to the oil spill.
Objective
To describe a surveillance system created to identify acute health issues potentially associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill among Veterans in the Gulf of Mexico coastal region.
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Description
During responses, an electronic medical record (EMR) allows federal emergency response staff to view and evaluate near real-time clinical encounter data. Analysis of EMR patient data can enhance situational awareness and provide decision advantage for headquarters' staff during both domestic and international events. The EMR was utilized by field medical personnel during the response to the Haiti earthquake.
Objective
To describe some uses of EMR data for surveillance and situational awareness during disaster response.
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Description
NPDS is a national database of detailed information collected from each call, uploaded in near real-time, from the 57 participating regional poison centers (PCs) located across the US. NPDS is owned and operated by the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC). Since 2001, scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collaborated with AAPCC to use NPDS for surveillance of chemical, poison and radiological exposures. In March of 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami damaged the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, causing a radiological incident classified as a "major accident" according to the International Nuclear Event Scale. The incident resulted in the release of radioactive iodine (I-131) into the global environment, which was detected in precipitation in parts of the United States. While no adverse health effects were expected, concerned citizens contacted public health officials at the local, state and federal levels. Many started to acquire and use potassium iodide (KI) and other iodide-containing products intended for thyroid protection from I-131, even though this was not a public health recommendation by state and federal public health agencies. Shortly after international media coverage began, regional PCs began receiving calls regarding the Japan radiological incident. State and federal health officials were interested in identifying health communication needs and targeting risk communication messages to address radiation concerns and KI usage recommendations as part of the public health response. This was done in part through NPDS-based surveillance.
Objective
To describe how the National Poison Data System (NPDS) was used for surveillance of individuals with potential incident-related exposures in the United States resulting from the Japan earthquake radiological incident of 2011. Our secondary objective is to briefly describe the process used to confirm exposures identified through NPDS-based surveillance.
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Description
In 2011, March 11th, the big earthquake attacked eastern Japan, and forced a lot of people to live in evacuation sites. Since those evaluation sites have high density of population and sanitary condition was poor in these sites, outbreaks of influenza, noro virus or other infectious diseases were concerned.
Objective
For an early detection and control of an infectious disease outbreak, we developed and have been operating syndromic surveillance for evacuation sites, "evacuation site surveillance."
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Description
In 2011, March 11th, the big earthquake attacked eastern Japan followed by huge tsunami and nuclear plant accident. Consequently a lot of people could not help living in evacuation sites. Since those evaluation sites have high density of population and were not necessarily good in sanitary condition, outbreaks of influenza, norovirus or other infectious diseases were concerned.
Objective
For an early detection and control of an infectious disease outbreak, we developed and have been operating syndromic surveillance for evacuation sites, "evacuation site surveillance."
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Description
The effectiveness of emergency preparedness and response systems depends, in part, on the effectiveness of communication between agencies and individuals involved in emergency response, including health care providers who play a significant role in planning, event detection, response and communication with the public. Although much attention has been paid to the importance of communicating clinical data from health care providers to public health agencies for purposes of early event detection and situational awareness (e.g., BioSense) and to the need for alerting health care providers of public health events (e.g., Health Alert Networks), no studies to date have systematically identified the most effective methods of communication between public health agencies and community health care providers for purposes of public health emergency preparedness and response. The REACH (Rapid Emergency Alert Communication in Health) study is a 4-year randomized controlled trial to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of mobile (SMS) and traditional (email, FAX) communication strategies for sending public health messages to health care providers—physicians, pharmacists, nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants and veterinarians.
Objective:
To systematically compare mobile (SMS) and traditional (email, FAX) communication strategies to identify which modality is most effective for communication of health alerts and advisories between public health agencies and health care providers in order to improve emergency preparedness and response.