Highlighting the 2012 Pre-Conference Workshops

Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina
December 3, 2012

1380 Harbor Island Drive | San Diego, California 92101

Don’t miss the 2012 ISDS Pre-Conference Workshops! The workshops include options for professionals with varying levels of experience – from students to seasoned practitioners. ISDS invites professionals from around the world to develop core disease surveillance skills and collaborate with their peers.

ISDS Pre-Conference Tracks will be lead by respected leaders in the field, including Dr. Howard Burkom, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (Data Analysis Methods 101); Mr. James Daniel, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (Meaningful Use Overview); Dr. Scott McNabb, Emory School of Public Health (Track 3 Sessions), among others.

Concurrent Pre-Conference Tracks

Track 1: Syndromic Surveillance, Informatics, Data Analysis, and Anomaly Investigation: The 101 Series. This workshop will provide an overview of key topics to introduce professionals to core public health and surveillance competencies. The track will include an overview of syndromic surveillance, public health informatics, data analysis methods, anomaly detection, investigation techniques, and data visualization methods using “R” statistical software. The objective of this track is to “bridge the knowledge gap” in order to better understand and apply public health data for informed and meaningful decision-making.

Track 2: Public Health and Meaningful Use: Closing the Surveillance Loop. This workshop is designed to facilitate discussions around Meaningful Use and the need for closing the surveillance loop between healthcare providers and public health practitioners in order to increase the effectiveness and capacity of disease surveillance. The track will include an overview of Meaningful Use and Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), including best practices, lessons learned, and next steps. Interactive break-out sessions will focus on the healthcare provider onboarding process, data transport mechanisms, data quality issues, analytics, attestation, and other group-specified topics. The break-out groups will have an opportunity to summarize and report their findings to the larger group. The workshop will conclude with a panel discussion, integrating the perspectives of public health practitioners and healthcare providers on the “meaning” of meaningful use data.

Track 3: Assessment tools to meet the core capacities of the International Health Regulations (IHRs). This hands-on workshop will introduce participants to concepts and tools to assess the gaps and current performance of public health practice needed to meet the core requirements for both biosafety and biosurveillance under the International Health Regulations (IHR). Attendees will learn about IHR requirements and assessment concepts, plus use hands-on tools to measure country-specific opportunities and challenges in implementing public health interventions that fill gaps and improve performance. They will discuss specific approaches to measurement of impediments to IHR target compliance by correlating their assessment findings into recommendations for public health stakeholders.

Swap Meet

All tracks will also feature access to the Swap Meet session. The Swap Meet is an exciting opportunity to walk around to tables and informally discuss topics or systems with system developers, system users, and experts.

Reserve your space and register now: http://www.syndromic.org/annual-conference/2012/registration.

*Please note that Continuing Medical Education credits (CME) will not be offered for 2012 Pre-Conference Workshop attendance.