Participate in the 2013 ISDS Pre-Conference Workshops

Date: December 11, 2013
Location: Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, New Orleans, LA
Registration Information

The ISDS Pre-Conference Workshops are community-generated, professional development trainings designed to address the professional needs of the disease surveillance workforce. The four workshops (overview of each below) will take place on December 11th - the day prior to the two-day 2013 ISDS Conference. 

Track 1: Public Health Surveillance for Beginners

Description: This Workshop will provide exposure to key topics central to public health surveillance and serve to orient those who are new to the field. The objective of this Track is to "bridge the knowledge gap" in order to enable participants to better understand and apply public health data for informed and meaningful decision-making and to communicate outcomes or results. It includes the following: an overview of public health surveillance; demonstrations of syndromic surveillance systems and their integration with novel data sources (Emergency Medical Services (EMS) runs, school absenteeism, poison control, etc.); anomaly detection methods and utility (an inside look at algorithms and their parameter settings); investigation techniques (a "how to" approach, showing the integration of multiple data systems/sources); and communication to stakeholders (creation of surveillance reports and communicating findings). This Track is being developed based on feedback from participants who attended the 2012 ISDS Pre-Conference Workshops, and, as such, is sure to be a high quality training opportunity relevant to the practical needs of those who are new to public health surveillance.

Track 2: Public Health Surveillance and Policy Issues for Experts

Description: This Workshop will provide experienced public health surveillance professionals with a forum for learning and discussing current topics and policies essential to public health surveillance and an opportunity to collaborate with other experts in the field to develop practical, concrete products and tools. It will include the following: a panel discussion on non-communicable disease surveillance; a series of roundtable discussions, including disaster surveillance/mass gathering response; a follow-up discussion from the 2012 ISDS Conference on (re)defining situational awareness; and break-out sessions to discuss and summarize current policy topics, such as Meaningful Use (U.S.), International Health Regulations (2005), and data sharing. Ultimately, this Workshop is intended to leverage the collective expertise of the group to advance participants' understanding and practice and to allow for a high-quality and seamless translation of the knowledge gained in the Workshop within the participants' organizations. 

Track 3: Using R for Disease Surveillance

Description: The public health workforce (public health practitioners, healthcare providers, and academicians in research settings) require data, as well as analysis and visualization of that data, to enable and provide informed decision-making, whether clinically-based or policy-based. Continued budgetary restrictions and funding cuts have somewhat hindered the ability to purchase commercial products and applications; therefore, public health has a strong need for exposure to and training with open-source products and tools for data collection, analysis, and visualization. R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. It provides a variety of statistical and graphical techniques, and is extensible (http://www.r-project.org/). As an open-source product, R is freely available, and, thus, optimal for use in a variety of settings. This Workshop is a hands-on training in how to use R for epidemiology, disease surveillance and high-quality data visualizations. *Note: There will be pre-assignments sent to registrants prior to the Workshop in order to maximize time and to facilitate greater efficiency on the overall flow of the workshop. Additional online resources/tutorials will be provided and are highly recommended for registrants unfamiliar with the R language and environment.

Track 4: Introduction to Mapping for Disease Surveillance

Description: This Workshop is a hands-on training on using Geographic Information Systems (GIS)/mapping for disease surveillance. It will introduce participants to the basic concepts of GIS, give simple and functional tips for good cartography, and show examples of digital cartography and exploratory spatial data analysis. *Note: There may be pre-assignments sent to registrants prior to the Workshop in order to maximize time and to facilitate greater efficiency on the overall flow of the workshop. Additional online resources/tutorials will be provided and are highly recommended for registrants unfamiliar with GIS/mapping.

For more information, please visit the webpage.