20 June 2013

Contribute Public Health Use Cases by 6/25

Are you interested in how public health can utilize structured data capture? If you have specific use cases in mind, a newly formed Public Health Tiger Team wants to hear your suggestions by next Tuesday, June 25. 


To send your use case suggestions, or to ask any additional questions, you can contact: 
ONC, Jim (James) Daniel, james.daniel@hhs.gov or CDC, John Saindon, uzn0@cdc.gov


Detailed Information:
As noted in last week's blog post, a Public Health Tiger Team is now working to develop use cases and stories to support the Structured Data Capture Initiative. The Tiger Team kicked off with its first meeting on Tuesday, June 18, and discussed the goals and objectives of the group. Weekly meetings will be held on Tuesdays from 2:00 PM-3:00 pm EDT. 

Specifically, the Public Health Tiger Team aims to:

  • Develop use cases/stories that support a public health purpose for structured data capture
  • Develop priorities for public health, as it relates to structured data capture
  • Specify what information ought to be included in structured forms; this will help ensure that all data needed to fulfill the public health use case is available
Part of this process may also involve customizing common data elements (CDEs) to better fit the public health use case. 

Any and all interested participants are invited to join these Tiger Team meetings. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 25, 2:00-3:00 pm EDT.


14 June 2013

You're invited! Structured Data Capture Public Health Workgroup Convening 6/18

The Structured Data Capture (SDC) Initiative is now expanding to include a Public Health Tiger Team that is open to any interested participants. This ongoing SDC initiative is focused on developing a standardized way to capture, access and store electronic health record (EHR) data. Public health is a key user of structured data; as a result, the Tiger Team will work on developing a use case for public health through weekly discussions beginning on Tuesday, June 18.

Public Health Tiger Team Information:

Please join us for our weekly Structured Data Capture Public Health Workgroup beginning on Tuesday June 18th, 2013 at 2:00-3:00 pm (EST). This will be a standing weekly meeting and the login/call in information will not change.
SDC and Public HealthDial In: +1-650-479-3208Access code: 665 131 907URL: https://siframework1.webex.com/siframework1/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=665131907**This info will not change.Points of Contacts for the SDC and Public Health WorkgroupONC, Jim (James) Daniel, james.daniel@hhs.govCDC, John Saindon, uzn0@cdc.gov



You can find more details on the SDC Initiative in our April 8 blog post

07 June 2013

2013 ISDS Call for Abstracts

Abstract submissions are now being accepted for presentation at the 2013 International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) Conference to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, December 12-13, 2013. The theme for this year's conference- Translating Research and Surveillance into Action- will focus on strategies for incorporating the latest in biosurveillance approaches, methodologies, and results into evidence-based public health practices, programs, and policies. Submissions that address the conference theme, i.e. the effective transfer of evidence to inform public health, and/or international surveillance and collaboration are especially encouraged.
  
The ISDS conference is the premier annual scientific gathering for researchers and practitioners in public health, epidemiology, health policy, biostatistics and mathematical modeling, informatics, computer science, and related fields focused on biosurveillance and emerging challenges to public health practice. The 2013 ISDS Conference will feature internationally renowned speakers from health departments, leading academic institutions, government agencies, international health agencies and top industrial organizations.
  

Abstracts accepted for presentation at the 2013 ISDS Conference will be published in a special supplement of the Online Journal of Public Health Informatics.

Discipline-Specific Themes
Analytical Methods: This theme is focused on important and novel advances in the field of surveillance methodologies and analytical approaches. Abstracts in this category may describe methods used in a production-type environment, still under development, or which have been tested only in a research setting.  

Informatics: Abstracts in this category may describe informatics practices used in a production-type environment, still under development, or which have been tested only in a research setting.  

Policy (at local, state, federal, international levels): Topics include, but are not limited to: legal/ethical/security/privacy issues in surveillance; Meaningful Use (U.S. policy) impact on public health departments; policies around social media/leveraging social networks for risk communication; and International Health Regulations (2005). 

Public health/population health surveillance practice:
This discipline is focused on improving the daily processes of surveillance, outbreak investigation, management, and response. Abstracts in this category may describe practices used in a production environment by public health departments or other agencies or describe evaluations of public health surveillance, health systems research, etc.   


Presentation Types
Oral: Oral presentations will be allotted 15 minutes, followed by 5 minutes for questions.

Poster:
Posters are the preferred format for presenting preliminary research and results of small-scale studies; describing experimental projects/programs or works-in-progress; and reporting system descriptions. Poster sessions are designed to offer direct access to the authors in a way not possible through oral presentations.

Panel:
Panel presentations are the preferred format for deeper discussions of an issue or question. These sessions are typically more interactive than oral presentations, involving active discussion among the panelists and the audience.  

Roundtable:
The goal of a roundtable is to encourage discussion rather than be a presentation/didactic session. The leader should be a knowledgeable and engaging person who can help stimulate a lively discussion.

Lightning Talk *New for 2013*:
We are introducing a new format this year, which we hope will enable more participation from conference attendees. These Lightning Sessions are designed to facilitate the speedy sharing of recent research, theory, publications, works-in-progress, projects, applications or experiences pertaining to any aspect of the science or practice of surveillance. Each speaker has just 5 minutes for their talk and must submit no more than 5 slides prior to the conference.  The 5 minutes must be strictly adhered to, and will be timed by means of a countdown timer, which the session moderator will control.

Presentation Categories
How To: This presentation style is focused on explaining the step-by-step process for accomplishing a task in practice, with the objective that participants will be able to learn how to implement the processes presented. Examples include sharing code for a visualization; how to monitor data quality in a system; how to translate ICD-9 to ICD-10 codes; how to geographically visualize data; how to conduct cluster detection, etc.  

Lessons Learned: This presentation style is focused on projects that have already been implemented. It provides an opportunity for presenters to share their experiences with peers.

Future Concepts and Ideas:
This presentation style is focused on projects that are in progress, or to showcase ideas for future projects for discussion feedback.


For details, please click here.    

Abstract Submission Deadline: September 9, 2013 

Meaningful Use Roundtable at CSTE Conference (6/10)


Dear Colleagues,
 
The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) will hold its Annual Conference in Pasadena, California, June 9 – 13, 2013.
 
If you are planning to attend the conference, there will be a Meaningful Use Roundtable on Monday, June 10th from 1:00pm – 1:45pm at the Pasadena Convention Center in Room 212.
 
The session is entitled- Public Health Agencies: Get Ready for Stage 2 Meaningful Use Public Health Reporting Requirements, and it will be presented on behalf of the Stage 2 Meaningful Use (MU) Public Health Reporting Requirements Task Force (A Public Health Community driven Collaborative Task Force). PHAs across the nation will be able to adopt this guidance according to their jurisdictional needs to implement the new objectives and processes required for Stage 2 MU.
 
If you are available and interested in this topic, then we will look forward to seeing you at the MU Roundtable.
 
If you have any questions or need more information, please send an email to meaningfuluse@cdc.gov  

05 June 2013

Call for Nominations: ISDS Awards for Outstanding Research in Biosurveillance

We invite you to nominate articles to be considered for the ‘Award for Outstanding Research Articles in Biosurveillance’ in order to recognize disease surveillance scientists and professionals for contributions to their fields of research. The nomination period will be open from May 29, 2013 to June 25, 2013. Nominate: survey link.

Eligibility: All nominated articles related to biosurveillance or of interest to the ISDS Research Committee, published in July 2012 through June 2013. Early publication articles (e.g., online only) are eligible.

Judging criteria:
  1. Impact on field of biosurveillance
  • Potential to change the way that surveillance is practiced
  • Potential to attract scientists from other disciplines
  • Educational value to a broader audience
  1. Scientific achievement
  • Innovation of methodology or application
  • Rigor of methods and quality of scientific writing

Process:
The Literature Review Subcommittee meets bi-monthly to discuss new journal articles related to biosurveillance. At each meeting, members volunteer to summarize one or more articles. The initial candidate pool consists of articles summarized by members of the Literature Review Subcommittee between July 2012 and April 2013, as well as select articles identified by the the Award Committee.

Please nominate up to 3 articles by selecting articles listed and/or writing in articles you feel meet the judging criteria into the survey.

Once the nomination period has closed, the Award Committee will review all nominated articles and narrow the list down to 5-8 finalist articles.

The finalists will be distributed to ISDS members for voting.

First and second awards will be presented at the 2013 ISDS Conference for the 'Impact on field of biosurveillance' and 'Scientific achievement' categories. The awards will be offered to the corresponding author, who may defer the award to another co-author of their choice. Prizes:
  • First prize: Invitation to present at the 2013 ISDS Conference or an invitation to present a featured webinar and 50% discounted 2013 ISDS Conference registration.
  • Second prize: $50 Amazon gift certificate and 25% discounted 2013 ISDS Conference registration.

The award winners will be announced on August 6, 2013.

For more information, please click here.

View 2012 Award winners here.