HIMSS Now Accepting Applications for the 2011 Davies Awards

HIMSS is now accepting applications for the 2011 HIMSS Davies Awards of Excellence.  The awards program honors hospitals and health systems, independent physician practices, public health and community health organizations that have successfully achieved value from EHRs to improve health care delivery.

Past awards for public health have gone to the Boston Public Health Commission (2009, for their use of their syndromic surveillance system, B-SYNSS), and NC-DETECT (2005, for their early even detection system). 

Information on the award process and numerous resources are available on the HIMSS Davies Award website.  Please contact David Collins, Director, Healthcare Information Systems, HIMSS, for more information.

ISDS Releases Final Recommendation for Meaningful Use

The International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS), in close collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's BioSense Program, developed syndromic surveillance standards and guidelines that will be used by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to clarify the public health surveillance requirements of the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) Meaningful Use Programs. Development of the ISDS Final Recommendation brought together leaders in syndromic surveillance from throughout the public health community, and gathered input from all stakeholder groups, including eligible providers and hospitals, EHR technology vendors, and public health decision makers.

View the final recommendation: The Core Processes and EHR Requirements of Public Health Syndromic Surveillance.

Read more about the ISDS Meaningful Use Project >>

Syndromic Surveillance Seminar at the Boston University School of Public Health

Webinar on Environmental Data Measurement and its Application to Public Health

For its February webinar, the Research Committee has invited select colleagues from the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) to outline some potential opportunities for collaboration between ISPRS and ISDS.

Webinar Info
Date:  Thursday, February 24th, 2011; 12:00-1:30 pm EST
The webinar will introduce the ISPRS Health Working Group and its upcoming Symposium on "Advancing Geospatial Technologies for Health," as well as its in-progress book entitled Environmental Tracking for Public Health Surveillance.  Two contributing authors/editors, Richard Kiang and Clara Witt, will present overviews on their chapters. 

Background
Under the ISPRS Remote Sensing Applications and Policies Technical Commission (Commission VIII), a new Health Working Group (WG VIII/2) has been formed to better understand how the applications of Earth observing technologies can contribute to knowledge of the natural environment's role in shaping environmental and infectious diseases.  The Working Group has several upcoming activities that may be of interest to ISDS members, which will be highlighted during the webinar:

1. Symposium on "Advances in Geospatial Technologies for Health," to be held on September 12th and 13th, 2011 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  
2. Upcoming book entitled Environmental Tracking for Public Health Surveillance, to be published by Taylor and Francis.  Featured ISDS members include Taha Kass-Hout, MD, MS and Elena Naumova, PhD. 

Presenters

• Amy Budge, Health Working Group Chair, Earth Data Analysis Center, University of New Mexico
• Stan Morain, Health Working Group Secretary, Earth Data Analysis Center, University of New Mexico
• Richard Kiang, Health Working Group Co-Chair,  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
• Clara Witt, VMD, MPH, Captain, USPHS, and InterAgency Liaison, Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center

Register Now!