A Message from the BioSense Redesign Team

The following is a message from the BioSense Redesign team with a March update on the Redesign Project.

It’s Time to Retire, On-Board, and Award!

They say time flies when you’re having fun… well, it’s been four months since BioSense 2.0 opened for business! And as of Friday, March 30^th, we will retire BioSense 1.0. This milestone is the direct result of collaborative efforts between our stakeholders and the Redesign Team.  Your feedback and ongoing involvement with the redesign have made twenty first century surveillance a reality. And, if you haven’t already, please take a moment to register for access to BioSense 2.0.  There are two ways to establish a BioSense 2.0 account. Please visit the Community Forum to learn how you can gain access to the new environment.

For additional information or assistance with on-boarding, please take a moment to view our technical assistance (TA) resources in the “on-boarding information” section of the Library. Current TA resources provide pertinent recruitment and on-boarding information for BioSense 2.0. We anticipate the TA focus will shift once we move out of the recruitment phase and include sharing promising and best practices for using the BioSense 2.0 application for enhanced public health surveillance. 

Finally, in the next few weeks, the Redesign Team will announce the recipients of the BioSense 2.0 Challenge Grants. A total of 14 letters of intent were received and 12 organizations were invited to apply. The applications are currently under review and award decisions will be announced no later than March 30, 2012. The BioSense 2.0 Challenge Grant Opportunity was created to help sites and public health jurisdictions address challenges and overcome barriers to establishing or enhancing syndromic surveillance capabilities within the BioSense 2.0 community.  As part of CDC’s ongoing commitment to innovation and creativity, we are working to identify new funding opportunities for the public health community.  So stayed tuned for upcoming submission guidelines!

Have questions about BioSense 2.0 or on-boarding?  View our new FAQs or simply visit the BioSense Redesign Collaboration Site where you can read our most recent community forum posts or e-mail info@biosen.se.

Reminder: Comment Period Now Open for ISDS' Draft Guidelines

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. 

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.

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.

View the Draft Guidelines Here
Submit Feedback Here

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.