This is a reminder to encourage you to provide feedback on ISDS' Draft Guidelines for Syndromic Surveillance using Inpatient and Ambulatory Clinical Care EHR Data before Monday, April 2, 2012.
These guidelines were developed as part of a new ISDS and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initiative to advance surveillance practice and further clarify Meaningful Use standards for public health syndromic surveillance.
Your comments will help inform the final recommendation that will be used by the CDC and the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to clarify public health surveillance measures in future Meaningful Use stages.
Please submit your comments via an online survey (link below) or send feedback to Becky Zwickl, ISDS Public Health Analyst, at bzwickl@syndromic.org.
View the Draft Guidelines
Submit comments via Survey Monkey
For more information about this project visit the ISDS Meaningful Use webpage.
If you have any questions, please contact Becky Zwickl by email at bzwickl@syndromic.org or by phone at (617) 779-0880.
Welcome to the official blog for the International Society for Disease Surveillance. By serving as a gateway to other ISDS resources, this blog is intended to keep Society members informed on recent Society activity and news in disease surveillance.
19 March 2012
ASPR's 2012 Public Health Challenge
ISDS would like to encourage its community to take part in a challenge to create a web application that uses data from Twitter to automatically generate a list of trending illnesses based on location. Developed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, the "Now Trending Challenge" is looking for technology-minded participants from various backgrounds to step up to this challenge and opportunity to win $21,000.
For more information about the "Now Trending Challenge" and how to participate, read the announcement below and visit the challenge website at www.nowtrendingchallenge.com.
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ASPR's 2012 Public Health Challenge: Now Trending -#Health In My Community
We’re looking for:
· Computer Phenoms
· Technology Students
· At-home Coders
· Problem Solvers
The Challenge:
At a recent Forum hosted by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, state and local health practitioners expressed their desire to more easily access social media data. The Now Trending Challenge was created to help fill this need.
The Now Trending Challenge asks participants to create a web-based application using open-source Twitter data that will automatically deliver a list of the top-five trending illnesses from a specified geographic region in a twenty-four hour period. This data would be sent to state and local health practitioners to use in a variety of ways including building a baseline of trend data, engaging the public on trending health topics, serving as an indicator of potential health issues emerging in the population, or cross-referencing other data sources.
The winning submission will receive a grand prize of $21,000, as well as a $1000 travel stipend to attend an event announcing the winner. In addition to the monetary prize, winners will have the chance to present their tool at a Fusion Forum and will ultimately benefit from national visibility and recognition as the tool is used by state and local health practitioners throughout the nation.
For further information, including complete rules and regulations, and to register your intent to participate, please visit www.nowtrendingchallenge.com.
Stay informed!
For frequent updates and more information follow:
Twitter: @ASPRFusion
Hashtag: #NowTrending2012
Questions to now.trendingchallenge@hhs.gov.
07 March 2012
Draft Guidelines for Syndromic Surveillance Now Open for Comment
ISDS is pleased to present Draft Guidelines for Syndromic Surveillance Using Inpatient and
Ambulatory Clinical Care EHR Data. These guidelines were developed as part
of a new ISDS and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initiative to advance surveillance practice and further
clarify Meaningful Use standards for public health syndromic surveillance (PHSS),
specifically with regard to health data from hospital inpatient and ambulatory
clinical care settings. This initiative aims to bring the entire stakeholder
community together for a dialogue on leveraging existing public health resources
and Meaningful Use investments for more timely and effective disease
prevention, public health response, and health outcomes.
ISDS is requesting stakeholder feedback during a comment period between
March 6, 2012 and April 2, 2012. Your comments will help to inform the final
recommendation that will be used by the CDC and the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to clarify
public health surveillance measures in future Meaningful Use stages.
Please submit your comments via an online survey (link below), or you may also send your feedback to Becky Zwickl, ISDS Public
Health Analyst, at bzwickl@syndromic.org.
For more information on ISDS's Meaningful Use efforts, visit the Meaningful Use webpage and the current ISDS Meaningful Use project webpage.
Thank you! Your input is greatly appreciated.
Thank you! Your input is greatly appreciated.
29 February 2012
ISDS Summer Internship!
ISDS is looking for a summer intern who is a current MPH student who will lead the research, writing, and dissemination of an ISDS policy brief. Pass this information along to anyone you think may be interested in applying. Please note that the application deadline is April 1st.
ISDS Summer Internship Description
Title: ISDS Summer Intern
Organization: International Society for Disease
Surveillance (ISDS)
Address: 26 Lincoln Avenue, Suite #3
Brighton, MA 02135
Agency description: The International Society for Disease Surveillance
(ISDS) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 2005 and dedicated to the
improvement of population health by advancing the science and practice of
disease surveillance. ISDS’s membership
represents public health professionals, healthcare providers, researchers,
government officials, and others engaged in national and
international health surveillance initiatives. We
facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and promote and conduct research,
education, and advocacy.
Internship description: Disease surveillance is at a crossroads
fueled by the advent of new technologies for data collection, management, and
application, and shaped by changing demands on the public health workforce.
ISDS would like to develop a policy brief and advocacy plan that will help to
set the stage for the next stage of public health surveillance. This intern
project will engage an MPH student in working with ISDS staff, members, and the
Board of Directors to identify key issues related to public health surveillance
research, practice, and policy; and to lead the research and writing of a
policy brief. The intern will also be responsible for developing a
dissemination plan for distributing the brief to the broader surveillance
community, as well as to key stakeholders and decision makers.
Specific Responsibilities
include:
- Research
policy issues related to public health surveillance
- Writing
of policy brief and advocacy plan
- Develop
dissemination plan to distribute policy brief to the broader surveillance
community
- Policy analysis
Minimum
Skills Required:
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent (preferably in biological or social science discipline).
- Proficiency
with social media and other electronic and web-based communications vehicles.
- Strong
interpersonal skills with a positive, “can-do” attitude.
- Capable
of working independently and cooperatively as a team member in a fast-paced
environment.
- Highly
organized, detail-oriented, and deadline driven.
- Eager to
learn new and improve upon current skills.
- Proficiency
using MS Office for Mac and the following software within an Apple Mac OSX
environment is preferred: Mail, iCal, and Address Book.
Estimated
start/end date: June 2012
– August 2012 (flexible)
Hours/Week: Approximately 10
hours/week
Application
deadline: April 1,
2012
Number of
students: 1
Is a car
necessary? No
Stipend: Yes, if
not applying for credit.
To apply: Submit a
resume and a cover letter to: careers@syndromic.org by April
1, 2012. Please put “ISDS Summer Internship”
and your last name in the Subject line. ISDS requires pre-employment reference
checks. ISDS is an equal opportunity employer.
Field Supervisor: Laura Streichert, PhD, MPH
Executive
Director
28 February 2012
"US disease agency in fiscal peril"
A new article written by Meredith Wadman entitled "US disease agency in fiscal peril" posted today, February 28th, on Nature.com describes how "proposed budget changes threaten disease prevention and surveillance programmes." Read the article below or from the original source.
NATURE | NEWS
US disease agency in fiscal peril
Proposed budget changes threaten disease prevention
and surveillance programmes.
and surveillance programmes.
When US President Barack Obama proposed a US$664-million cut in congressional funding for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in his 2013 budget request, he tried to ease the pain by replacing much of it with money from other sources. But only days after the 13 February request, a vote on Capitol Hill made clear just how vulnerable those substitutions are, suggesting that the US public-health agency is on increasingly shaky financial ground.
The proposed cut would come from the part of the agency’s budget that is controlled by Congress and pays for the core operations of the CDC, based in Atlanta, Georgia. These include grants to local, county and state public-health departments to monitor infectious diseases or track food-borne outbreaks. Core funding is also used to maintain the Strategic National Stockpile, a repository of drugs reserved for fighting epidemics and bioterrorism. If Obama’s plan is enacted, the CDC’s congressionally controlled funding will have fallen by roughly 20% since 2010 — a decline that “looks like a disaster waiting to happen”, says Scott Becker, executive director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Cuts to the CDC have already contributed to the loss of nearly 50,000 jobs in state and local health departments since 2008. This year, the administration argues that “efficiencies” will make possible the specific cuts it has proposed in areas such as adult-immunization funding and epidemiological support. But CDC advocates and public-health officials are sceptical. A proposed $47-million cut to the Strategic National Stockpile “is a lot more than just efficiency. It’s going to cut capability as well,” says Crystal Franco, an associate with the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC in Baltimore, Maryland. “We are reaching the tipping point where preparedness efforts are going to be reversed because of the lack of funding,” she adds.
The CDC’s budget was significantly boosted a decade ago because of concerns over bioterrorism in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. But as a budget vice tightens on the US government, the administration has begun to rely on two other sources to offset cuts to CDC programmes that have historically been funded by Congress (see ‘Cut to the core’).
SOURCE: CAMPAIGN FOR PUBLIC HEALTH FOUNDATION
One source is transfer payments made to the CDC from other public-health agencies. The 2013 budget would boost those payments by $296 million over this year’s level. But that would require congressional approval, which is far from guaranteed.
The second source of funds to offset CDC cuts — $903 million from the Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF) — could be even less secure. Established by the 2010 health-reform law, the multibillion-dollar fund is aimed at disease prevention but has become an object of disdain for those opposed to the law. In the current atmosphere of fiscal constraint, the PPHF has become a target for raiding, and already, as part of a payroll-tax-cut extension that was signed into law by Obama on 22 February, Congress has cut the fund by 20%, or $250 million, in 2013, and by a total of $6.25 billion to 2025.
The fund “is vulnerable. It could go away quickly,” says James Hughes, a CDC veteran and immediate past president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in Arlington, Virginia. What’s more, says Hughes, now a professor of public health at Emory University in Atlanta, the fund was intended to launch innovative prevention initiatives, “not to replace core public-health capacity support”.
Virginia DOH Job Opening
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Working Title
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Enhanced Surveillance Coordinator,
#08910 (EP)
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Role Title
The non-classified role title can be used for those job titles not listed under current classified role titles. |
Prog Admin Specialist II - 19212
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Hiring Range
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negotiable to $84,062
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Job Type
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Full-Time
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Job Type Detail
Definition |
Full-Time Salaried - Non-Faculty-
FTS-1
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Is this position funded in whole or in part by the American
Recovery & Reinvestment Act (Stimulus Package)?
Definition |
No
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Agency
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Dept of Health (601)
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Agency Website
Replace www.yourwebsite.gov with your agency's website. This will show as a link to applicants. |
Click Here for Agency
Website
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Location
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Richmond (City) - 760
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Sublocation
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District
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VDH - Office of Epidemiology - 601 -
602
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Position Number
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08910
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Job Posting Number
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0054688
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Type of Recruitment
Definition |
General Public - G
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Pay Band
Information about state pay bands |
05
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Job Description
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This is a readvertisement:
Applications received in December 2011 remain under review so applicants need
not reapply.
Manages VDH's Enhanced Surveillance projects to detect and monitor emerging events and unusual diseases, especially those that might result from bioterrorist activities or constitute a public health emergency. Directs initiatives and provides epidemiologic oversight for enhanced surveillance programs statewide, including syndromic surveillance, special event surveillance, and influenza surveillance. Ensures the timeliness, accuracy and utility of existing enhanced surveillance programs, establishes policies and procedures for enhanced surveillance activities, and supervises enhanced surveillance epidemiology staff. Researches innovations to improve enhanced surveillance and prioritizes new initiatives. Implements data collection, data analysis, data management and data dissemination strategies to support surveillance. Guides the design, development, implementation, maintenance and enhancement of data systems to support epidemiology activities, including ESSENCE, EARS, and OMS. Implements procedures for the surveillance use of data from ESSENCE, EARS, and BioSense. Coordinates the transmissions, testing, acceptance and implementation of "Meaningful Use" compliant electronic data submissions of syndromic surveillance data. Develops grant applications, manages budgets and prepares progress reports. Serves as a liaison to the Offices of Emergency Preparedness and Response (EP&R) and Information Management and Health Information Technology (OIMHIT), to health care providers and to national enhanced surveillance workgroups. Serves as a Bioterrorism Response support team member. |
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Minimum Qualifications
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Knowledge of syndromic surveillance
strategies, public health surveillance methods, principles of epidemiology,
communicable diseases, and of laws, regulations, and policies on disease
reporting and control. Strong skills in enhanced surveillance (including
syndromic surveillance), data collection and management, statistical
analysis, data interpretation and presentation, quality assurance of
epidemiologic data and oral and written communication. Ability to apply
epidemiologic principles; plan and implement new initiatives; train and
supervise staff; manage statewide programs; conduct training; manage grant
activities; develop goals and evaluate progress; develop/manage databases;
analyze and interpret statistical information; use statistical software
programs (e.g., SAS), spreadsheet applications (e.g., Excel), databases (e.g.,
Access and SQL) and presentation software (e.g., LogiXML, SAS, Excel and
PowerPoint). Degree with major coursework in epidemiology, statistics or
related field and/or equivalent experience and training.
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Preferred Qualifications
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Advanced degree in epidemiology,
statistics or related fields; and experience planning enhanced surveillance
activities, performing epidemiologic emergency response activities, and
working with data systems (e.g., ESSENCE and OMS) preferred.
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Special Requirements
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Applicants must successfully
complete a national criminal background investigation. As a Bioterrorism
support team member, must be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for
emergency response. Valid Driver's license and some travel required.
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Special Instructions to Applicants
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Applicants needing sponsorship need
not apply. A completed application, including all previous employment, salary
history, and education must be submitted on-line at www.vdh.virginia.gov for
consideration. No faxed, mailed, or e-mailed applications accepted.
Electronic applications will be accepted until 5:00 p.m. on the closing date.
Initial review will be conducted on applications received by March 5, 2012.
This is a restricted position which is solely funded by CDC Public Health Preparedness grant funds for the current budget period ending 8/9/2012. The availability of funding is scheduled for review in May 2012 and annually thereafter. Employment is contingent on the continued availability of grant or non-general funds. |
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Contact Information
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Name
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Pat Tucker
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Phone
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804-864-8142
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Job Close Date
Jobs close at 5pm EST. |
Open Until Filled
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Quicklink for Posting
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jobs.agencies.virginia.gov/applicants/Central?quickFind=144029
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24 February 2012
DNDHI Job Posting: Supervisory Health Scientist/Supervisory Statistician
The Division of Notifiable Diseases and Health Care Information (DNDHI), Public Health Surveillance and Informatics Program Office (PHSIPO), Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services (OSELS) is seeking an exceptional health scientist/informatician/statistician to serve as the chief of its Information Systems and Statistical Support Branch in Atlanta, GA.
The mission of PHSIPO is to advance the science and practice of public health surveillance that accelerates effective public health decision-making and actions. This is accomplished by managing surveillance systems with cross-CDC utility; developing new information sources, analytic methods, and tools for addressing common challenges in surveillance practice; engaging and supporting CDC programs and external partners, particularly those in health departments; having answers to common questions about surveillance practice & policy; using a multidisciplinary approach; contributing to public health emergency preparedness and response by enhancing biosurveillance capacities; and anticipating changes in healthcare, the determinants of public health, and information technologies that shape surveillance practice.
DNDHI plays a critical role in this mission by maintaining and improving the operations of surveillance systems already in existence (such as the Nationally Notifiable Disease Surveillance Systems (NNDSS) and BioSense), as well as the development of new surveillance capacities that are based on links between public health and health care providers. Development of new surveillance capacities will draw on the increasing automation of health care records and information systems, including opportunities for local, state, and national public health functions arising from the growth of health information exchanges, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the “meaningful use” provisions of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The incumbent serves as chief of the Information Systems and Statistical Support Branch (ISSSB) responsible for planning, developing, directing and providing statistical, data management, informatics and information system leadership. Responsible for managing contracts in support of the information technology needs of both the BioSense Program and the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System in an applied public health surveillance program. Directs research of statistical and data management methodologies relevant for applied public health surveillance (including notifiable disease, syndromic, and health services-based surveillance). As part of the senior management team, serves as the advisor to the Division Director, other senior officials, CDC, DHHS, ONC and other Federal, state, and private officials on matters concerning the statistical and data management- and informatics-related principles and practices of public health surveillance; provide leadership in addressing public health issues of national interest; and directs initiatives to develop new and improved statistical methods and techniques for analyzing and interpreting health surveillance data. As Branch Chief, responsible for the overall management and supervision of the analytical, research, and applied surveillance program activities and personnel assigned.
Because the surveillance systems managed by this division depend on surveillance systems managed by state, local, and territorial health departments throughout the United States. In for conditions that span numerous parts of CDC, the ability to collaborate effectively with colleagues both within and outside CDC is essential.
Applications for the position should be submitted by Thursday, March 22, 2012 through the USAJOBS website (www.usajobs.gov).
USAJOBS Announcements:
Supervisory Health Scientist/ Supervisory Statistician (Interdisciplinary), GS-601-15 and GS-1530-15
· Supervisory Health Scientist/ Statistician (internal): HHS-CDC-MP-12-601911
· Supervisory Health Scientist/Statistician (external): HHS-CDC-DE-12-600266
For additional information about this job, please contact Kathleen Gallagher. D.Sc., MPH by email at kxg7@cdc.gov or by phone at 404-498-6631.
**If you are USPHS Commissioned Corps Officer interested in applying for this position, you do NOT have to submit an application through USAJOBS. Instead, please send your cover letter and CV directly to Kathleen Gallagher. D.Sc., MPH at kxg7@cdc.gov.
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