A Message From CDC: SAVE THE DATE: Transition to ESSENCE Begins July 18

ISDS would like to share the following announcement  from the CDC

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SAVE THE DATE: Transition to ESSENCE Begins July 18

Dear Colleagues:

The development of the BioSense Platform has been a collaboration from start to finish. Now, the finish is in sight. Our Phase 3 Transition Schedule below provides you with our expected time frame for transitioning sites to ESSENCE:

Every 4 weeks, nine sites will transition to the new data flow, which includes the BioSense Platform Archive and ESSENCE application. We’ll conduct two webinars with each set of sites: an Orientation to the Transition Plan and Adminer (a SQL tool for viewing MS SQL data in the BioSense Platform Archive) and an orientation to the Access & Management Center (AMC) and ESSENCE.

Sites will progress through a series of activities to make sure data are correct, the site is fully operational, and everyone is oriented to using the BioSense Platform tools and resources. Here’s what we want to accomplish each week:

Weekly Transition Activities (updated 4/29/2016)
Week 1 §CDC presents transition plan and conducts orientation to Adminer §Users access Adminer to view new BioSense Platform Archive §Users confirm accuracy of Master Facility Table	Weeks 2 and 3 §CDC leads orientation to the Access & Management Center (AMC) and ESSENCE §Users set up accounts and data access via AMC §Users learn ESSENCE functionality and use it to visualize syndromic surveillance data	Week 4 §Sites transition to production (new) data flow §CDC begins converting legacy data from BioSense 2.0 front-end application to BioSense Platform Archive and into ESSENCE

We value your time and participation, and our goal is to stay on schedule. Schedule dependencies include

§  Confirmation of site Master Facility Tables,
§  Completion of CDC’s internal system security checks, and
§  Site readiness.

We will provide you with timely updates should the schedule need adjusting. In addition, if your site anticipates a schedule conflict, please contact http://support.syndromicsurveillance.org. As always, we’ll keep you informed on progress.

A BioSense Platform Quick Start Guide will be available to help you use the platform tools. During the transition, the NSSP Team will schedule conference calls to answer questions and share information. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

Thank you for your assistance as we begin this important phase of work for the BioSense Platform. We look forward to working with you to put the BioSense Platform into full production.

Sincerely,

NSSP Support Team

If you have technical questions, please contact our service desk at
http://support.syndromicsurveillance.org.