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The Keyhole Markup Language (KML) format has become a recognized standard for the distribution of geographic information system data. In most recent versions of the Real-Time and Outbreak Disease Surveillance (RODS) system, we standardized on KML as our mapping solution. This decision obviates the need for commercial GIS servers and clients, and permits users to easily overlay RODS map output with other websites and software that output KML, for example, EPA, NASA, and NOAA.

We quickly recognized that the mapping tools in RODS have broad applicability in public health and other domains where there is a requirement to display spatial temporal data as it relates to state, county, and zip code geographies. To facilitate these needs, we created the EpiScape map generation service for public use.

 

Objective

This paper describes EpiScape, our map generation service. It generates three-dimensional static or animated maps as KML files that can be used to display epidemiologic data over time and space using Google Earth or Google Maps software.

Referenced File
Submitted by hparton on

Secure and confidential exchange of information is the cornerstone of public health practice. Often, this exchange has to occur between public health agencies across jurisdictions. Examples include notification of reportable diseases when the testing and residence of the patient are in different counties. The cross-jurisdictional issues become exaggerated in times of communicable disease outbreaks or events of interest that are not yet classified as outbreaks. Currently, such communication occurs between state and local agencies and between agencies and community clinicians on a personal level, with phone, fax and snail mail. There are a multitude of secured websites hosted by the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) that offer access to single applications requiring approved users to remember multiple sites and logins/passwords. The goal of this project was to develop a centralized, single sign-on secure web portal, from which users could access multiple applications and communicate securely with each other.

 

Objective

There is an urgent need for improved communication between stakeholders involved in outbreak investigations, public health reporting and events of interest occurring between different jurisdictions within the same state. Currently, state and local public health agency personnel rely on personal communications involving phone, fax and snail mail. UDOH sought to develop and encourage the use of a secured web portal that allows access to a variety of applications using a single sign-on. This was achieved by developing a secured communications framework called PHAccess that allows tools and applications to be implemented within a secure web environment, using open source software and Agile methodology techniques. The user-centric design currently hosts an electronic report-staging area, ELR/EMR reporting, webbased reporting, secure messaging between stakeholders and a state laboratory result look-up feature. Currently, there are over 700 registered users; 3693 secure messages that have been exchanged and the site has been accessed over 12,205 times since January 2009. Informal feedback from users has been encouraging and formal evaluation is planned, along with expansion and integration with state level health information exchange projects. 

Referenced File
Submitted by hparton on

Cost-effective, flexible and innovative tools that integrate disparate data sets and allow sharing of information between geographically dispersed collaborators are needed to improve public health surveillance practice. Gossamer Health (Good Open Standards System for Aggregating, Monitoring and Electronic Reporting of Health), http://gossamerhealth.org, is an open source system, suitable for server or "cloud" deployment, that is designed for the collection, analysis, interpretation and visualization of syndromic surveillance data and other indicators to monitor population health. The Gossamer Health system combines applied public health informatics research conducted at the University of Washington Center for Public Health Informatics and Washington State Department of Health, in collaboration with other state and local health jurisdictions, the International Society for Disease Surveillance and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

Objective

The goal of this work is to make available to the public health community an open source system that makes available in a standards-based, modular fashion the basic tools required to conduct automated indicator-based population health surveillance. These tools may be deployed in a flexible fashion on health department servers, in the Amazon EC2 cloud, or in any combination, and are coupled through well-defined standards-based interfaces.

Referenced File
Submitted by elamb on

Mobile technology provides opportunities to monitor and improve health in areas of the world where resources are scarce. Poor infrastructure and the lack of access to medical services for millions have led to increased usage of mobile technology for health related purposes in recent years. As adoption has increased, so has its acceptance as a viable technology for health data collection. The ability to provide timely, accurate, and informed responses to emerging outbreaks of disease and other health threats makes mobile technology highly suitable for use in surveillance data collection activities and within the arena of global health informatics overall. The American Public Health Association defines global health informatics as the application of information and communication technologies to improve health in low-resource settings, which include the following: linking disparate sources of data together through natural language processing, use of mobile health technologies for disease surveillance, use of telemedicine to manage chronic disease, use of digital libraries to increase knowledge and awareness of public health events. 

 

Objective 

To present the prevailing global public health informatics landscape in developing countries highlighting current mobile system requirements and usage for disease surveillance and revealing gaps in the technology.

Referenced File
Submitted by elamb on

Influenza is a recurrent viral disease with potential to result in pandemics. Therefore it is necessary to have a timely, responsive and accurate detection. The use of Twitter as a source for data mining in biosurveillance has been previously shown useful, and it also has a potential for real-time visualization. However these efforts target messages in English, omitting from surveillance the part of users that speaks other languages, such as Spanish.

 

Objective

Identify the potential of Twitter as a source for monitoring and visualizing content regarding Influenza-like-Illness in Spanish-speaking populations for biosurveillance purposes.

Referenced File
Submitted by elamb on

Outbreak detection algorithms for syndromic surveillance data are becoming increasingly complex. Initial algorithms focused on temporal data but newer methods incorporate geospatial dimensions. As methods evolve, it is important to understand the effects on detection of both algorithm parameters and population characteristics. Intensive, iterative data analyses are required to accomplish this. Even with leading-edge computer hardware, it can take weeks or months to complete analyses using advanced signal detection techniques such as the space-time scan statistic in the SaTScan program.

Given the strategic significance and national security implications of timely and accurate detection, proper tools for studying and thus improving increasingly complex surveillance algorithms are warranted.

 

Objective

We describe a method to perform computationally intensive analyses on large volumes of syndromic surveillance data using open-source grid computing technology.

Referenced File
Submitted by elamb on

Real-time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance (RODS), a syndromic surveillance system created by the University of Pittsburgh has been used in Ohio by the state and local health departments since late 2003. There are currently 133 health care facilities providing 88% coverage of emergency department visits statewide to the RODS system managed by Health Monitoring Systems Inc. (HMS). The system automatically alerts health department jurisdictions when various syndromic thresholds are exceeded.

As part of response protocols, investigators export a case listing in a comma-separated values file which typically includes thousands of lines with each row containing: date admitted, age, gender, zip code, hospital name, visit number, chief complaint, and syndrome. The HMS-RODS web site provides basic graphs and maps, yet lacks the flexibility afforded by ad hoc queries, cross tabulation, and portability enabling off-line analysis.

 

Objective

This paper describes the integration of open source applications as portable, customizable tools for epidemiologists to provide rapid analysis, visualization, and reporting during surveillance investigations.

Referenced File
Submitted by elamb on

Automated Electronic Disease Surveillance has become a common tool for most public health practitioners. Users of these systems can analyze and visualize data coming from hospitals, schools, and a variety of sources to determine the health of their communities. The insights that users gain from these systems would be valuable information for emergency managers, law enforcement, and other nonpublic health officials. Disseminating this information, however, can be difficult due to lack of secure tools and guidance policies. This abstract describes the development of tools necessary to support information sharing between public health and partner organizations.

Objective

The objective of this project is to provide a technical mechanism for information to be easily and securely shared between public health ESSENCE users and non-public health partners; specifically, emergency management, law enforcement, and the first responder community. This capability allows public health officials to analyze incoming data and create interpreted information to be shared with others. These interpretations are stored securely and can be viewed by approved users and captured by authorized software systems. This project provides tools that can enhance emergency management situational awareness of public health events. It also allows external partners a mechanism for providing feedback to support public health investigations.

Submitted by uysz on

INDICATOR is a multi-stream open source platform for biosurveillance and outbreak detection, currently focused on Champaign County in Illinois[1]. It has been in production since 2008 and is currently receiving data from emergency departments, patient advisory nurse call center, outpatient convenient care clinic, school absenteeism, animal control, and weather sources. Long term scalability was however compromised during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic as immediate public health needs took priority over our systematic development plan. With the impending addition of veterinary clinic data and recognizing that the health of a community also depends on animal and environmental factors, we decided to revisit the INDICATOR architecture and redesign it to be a more holistic and scalable system. We also decided to revisit the data submission format, keeping in line with the philosophy of making opportunistic secondary use of as much data about the health of a community that we can obtain.

Objective

To redesign INDICATOR for One Health, establish a common data format, and provide for long term scalability.

Submitted by uysz on
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