The
ISDS Literature Review calls take place bi-monthly and are an
opportunity to discuss new journal articles related to biosurveillance.
Behind the scenes of the Literature Reviews, the Research Committee
leadership meets weekly to narrow down the results of a Scopus
search query (developed by Dr. Katie Suda, University of Tennessee) to
the most relevant articles. The use of Scopus has improved the range of
articles that we have been able to identify - capturing relevant papers
from disciplines that were previously missed. Recently, the Literature
Review organizers have taken another giant step towards a more efficient,
organized, and user-friendly Literature Review process with the
addition of a citation manager - Zotero.
Using Zotero has not only increased the efficiency for the organizers, but for Literature Review attendees as well. Zotero
allows participants to sort by title or author and to search for
keywords using tags. We hope that you find Zotero useful for finding the
article(s) that you are interested in! Call Highlights:
The Research Committee gratefully acknowledges two authors for their participation in the July call: Dr. Andrew Fine, Children’s Hospital Boston, and Dr. Erika Samoff, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Global Public Health. Both authors provided Literature Review participants with the invaluable opportunity to ask questions and learn more about their research. Brief summaries:
Dr. Andrew Fine and his colleagues wrote the article “Improved Diagnostic Accuracy of Group A Streptococcal Pharyngitis With Use of Real-Time Biosurveillance” published in Annals of Internal Medicine. This article highlighted the authors work in testing the benefit of adjusting the conventional Centor score for group A streptococcal pharyngitis using epidemiological data in the form of the recent local proportion positive (RLPP). They conclude that the number of additional true cases diagnosed and the number of unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions avoided for false diagnoses demonstrates a distinct advantage to using the epidemiological information.
Dr. Samoff and her colleagues authored the article “Integration of syndromic surveillance data into public health practice at state and local levels in north Carolina” published in Public Health Reports. This study sought to describe integration of syndromic surveillance data into daily surveillance practice at local health departments (LHDs). In order to achieve this objective, the authors compared the use of syndromic surveillance data and reportable disease data at the state and local levels. The authors conclude that, while the routine use of syndromic surveillance data by North Carolina state and local public health authorities resulted in meaningful public health action, the syndromic surveillance system is oriented towards sensitivity not efficiency. In the future, systems will need to be oriented towards efficiency in order to successfully incorporate new surveillance data into systems.
Other articles discussed:
- Venkatarao E, Patil RR, Prasad D, Anasuya A, Samuel R. Monitoring data quality in syndromic surveillance: Learnings from a resource limited setting. Journal of Global Infectious Diseases. 2012;4(2):120–127.
- Cowling BJ, Fang VJ, Nishiura H, et al. Increased risk of noninfluenza respiratory virus infections associated with receipt of inactivated influenza vaccine. Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2012;54(12):1778–1783.
- Kohl KS, Arthur RR, O’Connor R, Fernandez J. Assessment of public health events through international health Regulations, United States, 2007-2011. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2012;18(7):1047–1053.
- Ribeiro SHR, Costa MA. Optimal selection of the spatial scan parameters for cluster detection: A simulation study. Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology. 2012;3(2):107–120.
To view all of the article summaries, please visit the ISDS July 2012 Summaries Wiki.
You may also review the Literature Review archives here.
Written by Tera Reynolds, MPH, ISDS Program Manager.
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