Applied Public Health Informatics Fellowship - Host Site Applications Open

                 

Host Site applications are now being accepted from state and local public health agencies to host a fellow in the Class II Applied Public Health Informatics Fellowship program! Host Site Applications will be accepted: September 19, 2012- November 6, 2012 The Applied Public Health Informatics Fellowship Program is designed to give Informatics Fellows an accelerated training experience and on-the-job training at health departments in preparation for a career as public health informaticians at the state or local level.  Over the course of one year, Fellows will address projects to strengthen the public health informatics capacity of the host health agency.  Activities might include working on disease surveillance systems, public health registries, public health activities with Health Information Exchanges and other public health informatics priorities for the host site. Fellows will have Masters or Doctoral level education with demonstrated expertise in Public Health Informatics and a commitment to working in applied public health.                                                                                                                                                                                           Fellows are supported through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and are matched to a health departments. One application per state and local health agency will be accepted per host health agency. Assignments will begin by June 1, 2012. Host Site Application Information: Host site applications should describe the Fellowship assignment, supervision, support structure, and workplace environment proposed for the Fellow. All applications must include a letter of support from the applicant's State Health Officer, State Epidemiologist or Local Health Officer. Complete applications will be reviewed by a review panel and are evaluated on: The scope, quality, and diversity of experience offered to the Fellow, Experience of supervisors in management, informatics, and mentoring, Potential long-term career placement for the Fellow, Potential professional development opportunities and state financial support provided for the Fellow, Availability of office space, computer and office/technical support, and Letters of support for the mentor seeking a Fellow. Mentorship: Applications must also include a description of two designated mentors: a primary mentor and a secondary mentor. The primary mentor is required to hold a doctoral level degree, and it is preferred that the secondary mentor have doctoral level training as well. Both mentors must devote four hours per week to spend with the Fellow during the first month of the Fellowship and two hours per week for the duration of the training period. Health agencies approved to host a fellow will have demonstrated capacity to provide a Fellow with technical training, applied research opportunities, and opportunities for experience in the application of public health informatics in a practical setting. How to Apply: Please visit www.aphif.org for complete information and the link to our electronic application. HostSite Applications will be accepted September 19, 2012- November 6, 2012. Please note: Application to the Applied Public Health Informatics Fellowship does not guaranteeplacement of a Fellow at your host health agency. If you have any questions about the Applied Public Health Informatics Fellowship program or the host site application please contact aphif@cste.org or 770-458-3811.

Job Opening: Syndromic Surveillance Epi - IN State Department of Health

Job Title:   Syndromic Surveillance Epidemiologist

Job ID:   581393

Apply Before:   10/05/2012

Location:   Indianapolis, IN

Full/Part Time:   Full-Time

Regular/Temporary: Regular

Job Description:

This position conducts continual, timely syndromic surveillance for potential public health emergencies. This position maintains the statewide plan for the ISDH syndromic surveillance system; establishes key relationships with external agencies and local public health departments. This position also serves as the division coordinator for the Indiana National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (I-NEDSS) and coordinator for Early Warning Infectious Disease Surveillance (EWIDS). This position also supervises the Quality Assurance Epidemiologist and future Biostatistician (E7) positions and serves as a tertiary division director to assume divisional supervisory responsibilities in the absence of the division director and field epi director.

Preferred Experience:

Five (5) years of experience in epidemiology or public health; plus a Bachelor's degree in a Biological Science, Chemistry, an Environmental or Health Science, Mathematics, Nursing, Pharmacology, Public Health, a Social Science, Statistics, Toxicology, or a closely related area from an accredited college. A combination of experience and accredited graduate/doctoral education in Epidemiology and/or the areas listed may be considered.

If interested, you are encouraged to go to the job posting to learn more about this position and how to submit your application online. You may find the job posting here: http://www.in.gov/spd/2334.htm

Contact information for this job posting is below:

Thomas Duszynski, MPH

Director of Surveillance and Investigation

Epidemiology Resource Center

Indiana State Department of Health

Office 1-317-233-7009

tduszyns@isdh.in.gov

2012 ISDS Conference Highlight: Abstract Submission

Expanding Collaborations to Chart a New Course in Public Health Surveillance

ISDS would like to thank all those who answered the call to be a part of one of the most exciting programs in ISDS history by submitting an abstract for presentation at the 2012 ISDS Conference. The 2012 Conference will take place at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina on December 4-5, 2012.

2012 Abstract Submission Overview

We have received a record number of abstracts this year! Abstracts were submitted in four different categories: analytical methods (45 submissions), informatics (39 submissions), policy (8 submissions), and public/population health surveillance (171 submissions). The figure below highlights the keywords of abstracts submitted within each of these categories.

 

As expected most authors opted to submit for oral presentation (178 abstracts submitted), with 59 submitting for poster presentation. New this year, the 2012 ISDS Scientific Program Committee also accepted three additional submission types: panel (5 submissions), roundtable (11 submissions), and system showcase demonstrations (10 submissions). These presentation options provide greater opportunity for the community to be involved in the development of an engaging program on the most salient topics.

Authors from 25 different countries submitted, which is also an ISDS record (see map to the left; note that it is not clear from the map that abstracts were also submitted from Rwanda, Hong Kong, and Reunion). 

Abstract Review

We are now into the abstract review period. During this time, each abstract will be rated by at least three volunteer reviewers – a fantastic group of surveillance, informatics, etc. experts and seasoned ISDS Conference presenters. Acceptance decisions will be based on judgments of relevance, originality, methodology, and quality. Notifications will be sent to contact authors by October 3, 2012.

To find out more about the 2012 ISDS Conference, please visit the 2012 Conference webpages.

Written by: Tera Reynolds, MPH, Program Manager, ISDS

 

Job Opening: BioSense Program Manager

The Department of Health and Human Services is announcing a job opening for a Health Scientist (Informatics) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within the Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology and Laboratory Services (OSELS), Public Health Surveillance Program Office (PHSIPO), Division of Notifiable Diseases and Healthcare Information in Atlanta, Georgia. The Health Scientist hired for this position will serve as a senior advisor to the BioSense Program. Learn more about the duties and applicant qualifications below. For a full description and to learn how to apply, visit the full announcement here: http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/324853400.

Please note the job announcement open period ends Friday, September 28, 2012. 

Duties: Develops and implements scientific policies and procedures on informatics practices and principles for the Division of Notifiable Diseases and Healthcare Information (DNDHI).  The BioSense Program is managed in DNDHI.  This position will serve as a senior advisor to the BioSense Program.  Provides leadership in designing, coordinating, and maintaining information technology (IT) project goals, objectives, and priorities within DNDHI/PSHPO and in the general public health community.  Serves as a nationally and internationally recognized expert, providing scientific advice and consultation on solutions to critical problems that require outstanding creativeness in generating new hypotheses, approaches, and standards to be used with the BioSense Program and other DNDHI programs and projects.  Provides leadership in the development, testing, implementation and evaluation of scientific information technology and information systems needs and applicable software systems relating to public health informatics within the area of responsibility. 

Qualifications Required: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience at the GS-13 level of difficulty and responsibility in the Federal service as defined in the next paragraph. 

Specialized experience is experience which is directly related to the position which has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) to successfully perform the duties of the position to include  experience in providing leadership, technical direction, scientific expertise and communication skills in the field of public health surveillance and informatics in a myriad of public health projects to include information technology projects, automated healthcare data collection, electronic health records and critical coordination with other public health officials.

Full Job Announcement

R Training for BioSense - 9/7

Date: Friday, September 7th at 1:00-2:30 PM EDT

 

The BioSense Redesign Team will host an R Training for BioSense 2.0 webinar on Sept. 7 at 1-2PM EDT.  The topics covered in the training will include an introduction to R, downloading and installation of R, data management including importing data-sets, generating data subsets, adding new variables, how to generate descriptive statistics, and basic box plots, histograms and scatter plots.  The training will also include a demonstration of using R with BioSense data in a real example of a public health issue.

Register now »