BioSense Redesign Webinar: Review of BioSense 2.0 Application Features 2/1/13

On Friday, February 1^st from 1:00 – 2:00 EDT, BioSense Redesign will present a review of some of the technical features of the BioSense 2.0 application.  The webinar will include a 30 minute presentation of Data Sharing and Customized Searches, followed by 30 minutes for general questions.  Presenters and panelists will include Nabarun Dasgupta, Clark Freifeld, Mike Alletto, Paula Soper, and Barbara Massoudi of the BioSense Redesign Team, and Sharon Campolucci and Brian Lee from CDC. 

Please register for the 2/1/13 webinar using this link:  https://cc.readytalk.com/r/46z5wjx5jz0b

Note: The webinar will be recorded and posted to the Collaboration Site.

If you have not already done so, please take a moment to register for our other upcoming webinars:

• Follow-Up R Training Webinar for BioSense 2.0, January 22nd from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. EDT

Registration Link: https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/s/registrations/new?cid=kqtro72tuxfo

• HL7 Messaging Webinar, January 30th from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. EDT

Registration Link: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/nb9l91pv7ibu

Upcoming CSTE Webinar - IHR in the U.S. - 2/5/13

CSTE Webinar: The International Health Regulations

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM ET

Description:
CSTE will be holding a webinar on the International Health Regulations (IHR) on Tuesday, February 5, at 2 pm ET in follow-up to a 2012 assessment on state experiences with the IHR. This webinar is intended to raise awareness about the purpose and functions of the IHR in the U.S. and will focus on the assessment and reporting of potential Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEIC). Presenters will summarize key findings from the assessment on state awareness and implementation of the IHR, provide an overview of the IHR, and describe a specific event that was notified to WHO as a potential PHEIC.

Presenters:
Dr. Stephen Ostroff, MD
Formerly of Pennsylvania Department of Health

Katrin S. Kohl, MD, PhD, MPH/DTM
Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC

Aaron T. Fleischauer, PhD, MSPH
CDC Career Epidemiology Field Officer, North Carolina Division of Public Health

To participate in this webinar, you must REGISTER HERE by Monday, February 4.

After registration, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions for joining the session. Please check the WebEx system requirements before the webinar and contact WebEx Support for technical troubleshooting.

Background on IHR:
The International Health Regulations (IHR) are a binding agreement accepted by all Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO), including the U.S. The IHR are intended to enable early detection and rapid notification of potential Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEIC) to allow for a globally-harmonized response to minimize the spread of disease across international borders. Obligations for IHR implementation lie with the federal government. In the U.S., the reliance of the federal government on state and local public health jurisdictions for the implementation of public health programs and surveillance was acknowledged in a reservation to the IHR. Oversight of the U.S. government-wide implementation of the IHR lies with the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has designed a process of assessing health events in the U.S. for potential reporting to WHO under the IHR. Information about events is primarily in the hands of local and state public health partners.

NYC DOHMH Job Posting: Syndromic Surveillance Informatics Manager

Job Title: Syndromic Surveillance Informatics Manager

Civil Service Title: Computer Systems Manager

Proposed Salary Range: $49,492.00 - $81,903.00 (Annual)

Work Location: 42-09 28th Street, Long Island City, NY

Division/Work Unit: IT Solutions and Delivery

Job Description: The Informatics Unit is an innovative operational unit within the Bureau of Informatics and Development responsible for implementation activities and strategic planning of large scale city-wide critical systems and infrastructure including NYC Syndromic Surveillance Reporting. The Unit liaises and coordinates with NYC hospital electronic medical records IT staff to implement upgrades and enhancements for data quality and timeliness of syndromic reporting. In addition, NYC DOHMH is taking on a new initiative to integrate with CDC’s BioSense system in order to track syndromic data and response activities across jurisdictions. The Syndromic Surveillance Informatics Manager, under the direction of the Director of Informatics and Data Services, with great latitude for independent thinking, will be responsible for implementing and overseeing the following activities: 

• Act as the main IT point of contact with NYC area hospitals regarding transmission of syndromic surveillance data and meeting Meaningful Use requirements.

• Work with NYC Hospital EDs to implement syndromic reporting for those that are currently not reporting.

• Liaise with NYC-area hospitals to implement electronic reporting of syndromic surveillance emergency department data from non-standard methods to standard HL7 formats consistent with Meaningful Use.

• Coordinate transition of data transmission of ED data to HL7 standards that are consistent with Meaningful Use requirements, including work with BCD Syndromic staff to test new HL7 file data quality and timeliness, as compared to existing methods.

• Possess strong analytic skills along with the technical skills needed to work with large data systems and strong working knowledge of SAS (SAS eBI 9.2,  Proc SQL, Macros) and SQL (Database server Application), is required. Ability to program in capacity in SSRS or ability to learn SSRS is a plus.

• Extensive knowledge working with HL7 messages and HL7 parsing tools as well as XML messages and XML framework.

• Identify data quality issues independently or in coordination with BCD Syndromic Surveillance unit.

• Identify, troubleshoot and resolve issues with interruptions in reporting from NYC hospitals to DOHMH.

• Escalate reporting issues to Informatics and BCD Syndromic Surveillance unit.

• Work with NYC hospitals to improve data quality and timeliness of syndromic ED reports.

• In coordination with DIIT technical staff and BCD Syndromic data analysts, design a central database for syndromic ED data.

• Investigate methods to electronically submit data to BioSense.

• In coordination with DIIT application developers and BioSense technical team, design a method to report NYC Syndromic ED data to BioSense.

• Ability to utilize Geographic Information Systems tools (GIS) such as ESRI and ArcGIS Server to assist surveillance programs to map ELR data.

• Examine other electronic data sources linked to syndromic surveillance and identify methods to improve data quality.

• Use knowledge of syndromic surveillance to collaborate with colleagues on various data matching and surveillance projects.

• Escalate reporting issues to Director of Informatics and DOHMH surveillance programs as necessary.

• In addition, the Syndromic Surveillance Informatics Manager will prepare presentations, manuscripts, and reports describing initiatives, systems, methodologies and results as well as participate and represent DOHMH in conferences, meetings and seminars.

For complete information regarding Minimum Qualification Requirements and Preferred Skills, visit the full Job Posting on the NYC Gov Careers Site.

To Apply: 

Apply online with a cover letter to https://a127-jobs.nyc.gov/.  In the Job ID search bar, enter: job ID number #113535.

Posting Date: 11/26/2012
Post Until: Until Filled

IEEE Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI) 2013 - Call for Papers and Workshop Proposals

ISDS would like to share the following announcement about an upcoming opportunity to share your work and become informed on the latest developments in the ISI world. Please see the message below about the approaching deadlines for paper submission and workshop proposals for the IEEE Intelligence and Security Informatics 2013. 

IEEE Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI) 2013

Big Data, Emergent Threats and Decision-Making in Security Informatics

Call for Papers and Workshop Proposals

Dates: June 4-7, 2013, Seattle, WA, USA

Host: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Conference website: http://ISIconference2013.org 

Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI) is an interdisciplinary research field involving researchers in information technologies, computer science, public policy, bioinformatics, and social and behavior studies as well as local, state, and federal law enforcement and intelligence experts, and information technology industry consultants and practitioners to support counterterrorism and homeland security missions of anticipation, interdiction, prevention, preparedness and response to terrorist acts. The annual IEEE International ISI Conference series was started in 2003. The ISI 2013 conference program will feature three main topic streams:

·       Big Data in Security Informatics

·       Emergent Threats

·       Decision-Making in Security Informatics.

See TOPICS page in the conference website for details.

ISI 2013 will include a special session on Emergent Phenomena and Big Data sponsored by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).

IMPORTANT DATES

·       Paper submission due date: Feb 15, 2013

·       Notification of acceptance: Mar 18, 2013

·       Due date for workshop proposals: Feb 18, 2013.

PAPER SUBMISSION
Submissions may include papers on systems, methodology, test-bed, modeling, evaluation, and policy. Research should be relevant to informatics, organization, or public policy in applications of counter-terrorism or protection of local/national/international security in the physical world or cyberspace. Submission file formats are PDF and Microsoft Word. Required Word/LaTex templates (IEEE two-column format) can be found on IEEE's Publications web pages. Submissions can be long (6,000 words, 6 pages max) or short (3000 words, 3 pages max). Papers in English must be submitted electronically via the submission website athttps://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ieeeisi2013.

The accepted papers from ISI 2013 and its affiliated workshops will be published by the IEEE Press in formal Proceedings. Authors who wish to present a poster and/or demo may submit a 1-page extended abstract, which, if selected, will appear in Proceedings. Conference content will be submitted for inclusion into IEEE Xplore as well as other Abstracting and Indexing (A&I) databases. The selected IEEE ISI 2013 best papers will be invited for contribution to the Springer Security Informatics journal.

Best papers awards will be given in three categories:

·  Best paper

·  Runner-up paper

·  Best student paper.

WORKSHOPS
In conjunction with ISI 2013, several workshops will be held on June 4, 2013.Special-topic workshops in any areas of Intelligence and Security Informatics research and practice are welcome. Such events will be an integral part of the ISI-2013 conference program. Proposals in PDF or Microsoft Word not exceeding 3 pages should be emailed to the conference organizing committee at antonio@pnnl.gov by February 18, 2012 and contain the following information.

·  Title of tutorial/workshop

·  Preferred duration (half day vs. full day)

·  Brief bios of proposed organizer(s)

·  Objectives to be achieved.

Call for Nominations: BioSense 2.0 Governance Group Elections

The BioSense 2.0 team has released a call for nominations for representatives to serve on the BioSense 2.0 Government Group. The purpose of the BioSense 2.0 Governance Group is to ensure that the development of BioSense 2.0 is advised by the public health community with representation from state and local public health.

The BioSense 2.0 Governance Group is comprised of 15 representatives, including

• 3 from state and territorial public health agencies,
• 3 from local public health agencies,
• 2 from non-public health data providers (hospitals, EHR vendors, etc.),
• 1 from ASTHO,
• 1 from CSTE,
• 1 from ISDS,
• 1 from NACCHO,
• 1 from CDC,
• 1 from the US Department of Defense
• and 1 from the US Department of Veteran's Affairs.

Nominations are currently needed for the following elected positions:

• representatives from state and territorial public health agencies
• representatives from local public health agencies
• representatives from non-public health data providers

Nominations must be submitted by Friday, January 18, 2013. For complete instructions on how to submit a nomination, please see the Nomination Letter.

All questions relating to this nomination process should be directed to Scott Gordon.

2012 ISDS Conference: Best Poster Award

The ISDS annual conference is the premier event dedicated to the advancement of the science and practice of disease surveillance. This year’s theme was 'Expanding Collaborations to Chart a New Course in Public Health Surveillance' and it highlighted the importance of working together across agencies, sectors, and disciplines to improve surveillance methods and population health outcomes. The 2012 Conference was held at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina in San Diego, CA, December 4th-5th. One of the sessions that best captured the theme was the 2012 ISDS Poster Session.

2012 ISDS Conference Best Poster Award Winner.

We had a record number of abstracts submitted for presentation at the 2012 ISDS Conference and, among these, 94 were accepted for poster presentation. Every year, ISDS presents an award for the best poster. This year, all Conference attendees were given the opportunity to vote for the poster that they felt was the 'best.' 

There were many exceptional posters, making it a very competitive process. However, a winner was chosen and was announced at the end of the 2012 ISDS Conference - the poster New Strategy to Monitor and Evaluate Laboratory Biosafety Programs' presented by Heather Meeks, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).

ISDS congratulates Dr. Meeks and her co-authors on this achievement. For more information on the poster topic, please click here.

Please Comment: PHIN Messaging Guide for Syndromic Surveillance Release 1.3

The syndromic surveillance stakeholder community is invited to provide comments on Release 1.3 of the PHIN Messaging Guide for Syndromic Surveillance now through December 21, 2012.

Over the last few months ISDS, in partnership and with the support of the Division of Informatics Solutions and Operations (OSELS) of the CDC, has been working to revise the PHIN Messaging Guide for Syndromic Surveillance (Guide). The Guide provides messaging specifications for emergency department and inpatient settings for select ADT and ORU (provided by our colleagues at the Washington State Department of Health) message types. The Guide was first released in 2011 as an emergency department and urgent care center messaging guide and is now being expanded to incorporate inpatient settings as well as stakeholder feedback on prior Guide releases.

Release 1.3 of the Messaging Guide provides a conformance profile for EHR Meaningful Use certification. It also includes an important update that creates a “Hospital Messaging Guide” incorporating Emergency Department, Urgent Care and Hospital Inpatient specifications. The goal of this Guide is to provide HL7 messaging specifications for hospitals providing clinical data to a public health agency for syndromic surveillance. This goal contrasts with that of the recently released ISDS Recommendations because it focuses on the technical specifications for providing the recommended data elements rather than the reasoning behind the data recommendations.

The new Messaging Guide Release 1.3 will improve upon prior releases by:

• Clarifying ambiguities from Release 1.0

• Responding to stakeholder feedback on prior releases

• Incorporating guidelines recommended by the ISDS Meaningful Use Workgroup for inpatient syndromic surveillance data

• Facilitating the formation of syndromic surveillance data exchange between hospitals (now including inpatient) and public health agencies

• Consolidating and clarifying hospital EHR conformance requirements for Meaningful Use certification

How to provide comments:

Stakeholder input helps ensure that the Guide will have widespread utility to facilitate both EHR development and the implementation of hospital-based syndromic surveillance systems. Following this community comment period ending on 12/21, the Guide will be revised further, and a finalized version will be released in the spring of 2013.

We encourage everyone interested in this initiative to provide comments on the Messaging Guide Release 1.3. You may provide feedback via an online survey available here or by emailing your comments to Becky Zwickl, MPH, ISDS Public Health Analyst, at bzwickl@syndromic.org. The comment period ends on Friday, December 21, 2012, 11:59 pm EST.