International Health Regulations Webinar Series

The International Health Regulations (2005) came into effect in 2007 and mandate that each signatory country be capable of detecting, analyzing, reporting, and responding to a public health event of international concern by 2012.  Some countries are capable of this at present, but these are generally clustered in resource-limited settings.  Many more countries will not be fully capable of compliance by 2012, some because of insufficient surveillance systems.

The ISDS Global Outreach Committee, in order to provide a learning opportunity to better understand the IHR requirements and data elements required by the World Health Organization (WHO), has put together a webinar series for summer 2011.

Monday, June 27th, 2011; 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EST
Introduction to IHR and IHR Requirements and Indicators for Monitoring Core Capacity Development

• Speaker:  Dr. Stella Chungong, Lead, IHR Monitoring Team, World Health Organization

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011; 12:00 - 1:00 pm EST
Illuminating Impediments to IHR Implementation and Possible Interventions

• Speaker:  Dr. Scott McNabb, Emory University

Register for this event

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Participate in the Syndrome Ontology Evaluation Survey!

On behalf of Mike Conway at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), ISDS would like to invite you to participate in a survey on "Syndrome Ontology Evaluation."

The survey is designed to help evaluate the syndromic definitions encoded in the Extended Syndromic Surveillance Ontology, a Natural Language Processing oriented terminological resource developed at UCSD.  The terminology builds on and extends the Syndromic Surveillance Ontology, developed primarily at McGill University and the University of Pittsburgh.

Eight syndromes are covered:

• Gastrointestinal Syndrome
• Respiratory Syndrome
• Influenza-Like Illness
• Consitutional Syndrome
• Neurological Syndrome
• Botulism Syndrome
• Hemorrhagic Syndrome

 Go to the survey

The survey should take around 15 minutes to complete.

Discussion on the June 2011 Report of the National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommittee

For its June 2011 meeting, the Public Health Practice Committee will be hosting a discussion on the 2011 Report of the National Biosurveillance Advisory Committee (NBAS).  Pamela S. Diaz, MD, Director of Biosurveillance Coordination at the Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services (OSELS) will be leading the discussion. 

When:  Monday, June 27th, 2011; 12:30-1:30 pm EST



Register for the webinar! 

ISDS Presentations at the 2011 CSTE Annual Conference

ISDS is gearing-up for the 2011 Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) Annual Conference next week in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Members and staff will be leading breakout and roundtable sessions on BioSense, Distribute and Meaningful Use. We hope to see you there!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Pre-Conference BioSense Workshop – Breakout Session, 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM

The ISDS Recommended Core Syndromic Surveillance Business Process Applied: Where can technology enhance your work?  

• Charlie Ishikawa & Lucia Roja-Smith

Syndromic surveillance involves a complex array of discrete task, processes and decisions. Business processes and workflows are a method for graphically depicting and articulating any complex activity.  In this session participants will learn how this methodology can be used to understand syndromic surveillance and work in small groups to identify how technology may enhance their work.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Concurrent Breakout Sessions

ASSESSING PERFORMANCE OF SYNDROMIC SURVEILLANCE:  10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

• Distribute surveillance system: View of the 2010-2011 flu season - Donald Olson, International Society for Disease Surveillance
• Data quality monitoring approaches in the Distribute system - Julie Eaton, University of Puget Sound 
• Using prediction intervals to determine the effect of timeliness on accuracy for ILI ratios - Ian Painter, University of Washington

Concurrent Roundtable Discussions: 12:30 PM - 1:15 PM

INFECTIOUS DISEASE

Adopting and assessing use of a common ILI syndrome for monitoring and estimating

impact from influenza across multiple sites in the Distribute Project

• Donald Olson, International Society for Disease
•  Blaine Reeder, University of Washington

SURVEILLANCE / INFORMATICS

Syndromic surveillance requirements and Meaningful Use

• Michael A Coletta, Virginia Department of Health
•  Taha Kass-Hout, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Global Public Health Activities at the 2011 PHI Conference

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