March 2012 Literature Review Update

 ISDS Research Committee

March 30, 2012

The Literature Review bi-monthly calls are a great opportunity to engage with other biosurveillance researchers and practitioners about new journal articles highlighting developments in the field. Literature Review participants are at all career levels, from some of the top professionals in the disease surveillance to those just starting out. It is a great way to stay up on the latest in biosurveillance research and practice and for participants to learn from one another. All levels of participation are welcome – from summarizing an article to joining in on the discussions to just listening.

We had an exciting March call!

Dr. Katie Suda, Associate Professor and Director, University of Tennessee, presented an update on the new Literature Review process. The previous process included creating pubcrawler and Google Scholar searches with the results sent to an ISDS Research Committee Gmail account. However, we had received feedback from members that we were missing relevant literature. Over the course of several weeks, Dr. Suda, along with the Literature Review leadership, developed search strings in PubMed, Embase, and Scopus, consisting of over 100 terms suggested by members from different content areas. Based on the results, we decided that the Scopus search is the most comprehensive – includes articles indexed in both Medline and Embase (compared to pubcrawler which only includes articles indexed in Medline). This updated process dramatically increases the efficiency and range of articles captured. In addition, Dr. Suda has graciously offered to continue to help us to refine our search string as necessary.

One Literature Review contributor chose to summarize Assessing the Continuum of Event-Based Biosurveillance Through an Operational Lens by Corley et al., which offered a characterization framework consisting of eight attribute families meant to accommodate the entire continuum of event-based biosurveillance. The Research Committee proudly welcomed Dr. Courtney Corley, Knowledge Discovery and Informatics Group, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), on the Literature Review call. He summarized his article and answered participants' questions. Dr. Corley’s presence enhanced the discussion of his research, resulting in a very lively and interactive conversation. The Research Committee would like to thank Dr. Corley for his time and valuable contribution.

Other articles that were discussed included:

·      The Effect of School Dismissal on Rates of Influenza-Like Illness in New York City Schools During the Spring 2009 Novel H1N1 Outbreak by Dr. Joseph R. Egger, SciMetrika, et al., which describes an unusual opportunity to test the effect of school closure on ILI incidence in a situation among schools known to be affected by an epidemic.

·      Using Poison Center Data for National Public Health Surveillance for Chemical and Poison Exposure and Associated Illness by Amy F. Wolkin, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, et al., describing the National Poison Data System and its uses and integration with public health surveillance for situational awareness, identification of early markers of chemical events, and chemical and poising exposures and associated illnesses.

·      A novel experience in the use of control charts for the detection of nosocomial infection outbreaks by Isabel Cristina Gomes, Minas Gerais Federal University, Brazil, et al., which evaluates the use of control charts to monitor nosocomial infection rates in a Brazilian university hospital.

·      Outbreaks of virulent diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli – are we in control? by Dirk Werber, Robert Koch Institute, Germany, et al., which highlights how the combination of cutting edge laboratory methods and common sense food tracing was applied to fight – what the authors call – an ever-moving target, the constantly evolving diarrhoeagenic E. coli.

The next Literature Review call will be in late May (the exact date will be announced soon).

To view the full summaries from the March call, please click here.

If you would like to be added to the Literature Review e-mail list or have comments/questions, please e-mail Tera Reynolds, ISDS Program Manager.