Call for Nominations: Rick Heffernan Award for Public Health Practice

Nomination Deadline: September 16, 2013

The Award
The Award Committee is soliciting nominations for the Rick Heffernan Award for "sustained and outstanding contributions to the knowledge and practice of biosurveillance." This annual award was established to honor Rick Heffernan, an early leader in the field of biosurveillance, and founding member and constant supporter of ISDS, who passed away in February 2013.

Rick was committed to his career as a dedicated public servant in the field of epidemiology. He was a strong, gentle, and exemplary leader who will be remembered as a trusted friend, a deeply valued colleague, and one who was always calm in a crisis. He graduated in 1992 from Columbia University, School of Public Health/School of International Affairs in New York, NY with a Master of Public Health and a Master of International Affairs. From 1992 to 1996 he worked for the New York City Department of Health, first as a Public Health Epidemiologist conducting HIV research and then as Assistant Director of the Bureau of Communicable Diseases. He set up the first Health Alert system to enable the NYC Department of Health to provide timely information to city healthcare providers on breaking public health emergencies. From 1996 to 2001 he was a Ph.D. candidate at Yale University, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, completing all coursework and conducting research on drug resistant infections. During this time he spent a year studying the Ebola virus antibody in northeastern Gabon. In the wake of 9/11, Rick rejoined the NYC Department of Health and was critical to the Department's response to the World Trade Center and anthrax letter terrorist attacks. One of his major accomplishments was establishing one of the first electronic emergency department syndromic surveillance systems in the country. He also led the effort to develop the Communicable Disease Surveillance System, improving the city's capacity to track over 70 infectious diseases. After moving to Madison, WI in 2007 with his family, he continued his work helping to detect, prevent and manage threats to public health, taking the position of Chief Research Scientist Supervisor for the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, Communicable Disease Epidemiology Section. He was an author of numerous scientific journal articles, a board member of the International Society of Disease Surveillance, taught workshops on syndromic surveillance for the annual ISDS conference, and gave numerous presentations in his field of expertise. Since 2007 he served as Associate Faculty at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health, and previously served as Adjunct Lecturer for graduate-level courses at Yale University, Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases and at City University of New York, Hunter School of Health Sciences. Rick was also a talented musician and athlete. He was profoundly loved by many, who will miss his warmth and gentleness, his delightful sense of humor, and his big smile.

The award for 2013 will be presented at the ISDS Conference in New Orleans, December 11-13th, 2013.

Nominations
Any current or former ISDS member may be nominated by a colleague (no self-nominations please). Nominations should be prepared containing the following:

1. A cover letter from the primary nominator up to one page in length, that describes the major contributions of the nominee to the practice of biosurveillance and her/his impact on the field.
2. A brief curriculum vitae or biographical sketch of the nominee (up to three pages).
3. Optional: Up to two letters, of a maximum of two pages in length each, supporting the nomination, from others familiar with the contributions of the nominee. The support letters should describe in specific terms how the nominee has made sustained and outstanding contributions to the knowledge and practice of biosurveillance.

Nominations should be submitted through this online form. The deadline for submitting nominations for the 2013 Rick Heffernan Award is September 16, 2013.

If you have any questions or concerns, please e-mail syndromic@syndromic.org.

Learn more about the 2013 ISDS Conference.

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.

2012 ISDS Conference Highlight: 2012 ISDS Conference Abstracts

With whom will you collaborate next?

Peer-reviewed Abstracts are an important product of the ISDS Annual Conferences. Not only do they make up a large portion of the body of work on best practices and innovations in disease surveillance, the 2012Conference Abstracts (pdf) also highlight this year’s conference theme ‘Expanding Collaborations to Chart a New Course in Public Health Surveillance.’

Figure 1. The largest connected component of the
2012 ISDS Abstract author network. The circles
represent authors, with the color indicating primary
author affiliation. Lines are drawn between co-authors.

Looking at authorship of the 2012 accepted abstracts, there are a large number of inter-department and inter-agency collaborations (Figure 1), but there is room for expansion. This can be visualized by comparing the largest connected component of an authorship network visualization (Figure 1) versus the entire network (Figure 2). Each circle in the figures represents an author and the colors represent the author’s first affiliation. The lines connect co-authors. As you can see, there are many smaller groupings and groupings with homogeneous colors in Figure 2.

The ISDS Annual Conference has commonly been cited as the place where unique collaborative projects originate, and this may be due to the variety of stakeholder groups in attendance. The ISDS Conference draws professionals from a broad range of disciplines— epidemiology and computer science to mathematical modeling and health policy.

So, view the 2012Conference Abstracts (pdf) and come to San Diego, CA, prepared to discover your next collaboration!

Figure 2. Full 2012 ISDS Abstract author network. The circles represent authors, with the color indicating primary author affiliation. Lines are drawn between co-authors.

To find out more about the 2012 ISDS Conference, please visit: http://www.syndromic.org/annual-conference/2012.

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

2012 ISDS Conference Highlight: Plenary Panel on Successful Collaborations

The ISDS Annual Conference is the premier event dedicated to the advancement of the science and practice of biosurveillance. The 2012 Conference will be held at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina in San Diego, CA, December 4-5^th, 2012, with Pre-Conference Workshops on December 3rd. This year’s theme, Expanding Collaborations to Chart a New Course in Public Health Surveillance, will highlight the importance of working together across agencies, sectors, and disciplines to improve surveillance methods and population health outcomes. No session addresses this year’s theme quite like the plenary panel: Highlighting Successful Collaborations.

Map of Texas-Mexico Border Area from the
Texas Department of State Health Services website. 

The first panel presenter, Captain Stephen H. Waterman, is the Lead of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine’s (DGMQ) U.S.-Mexico Unit at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. The Division’s Public Health Mission is “To reduce morbidity and mortality among immigrants, refugees, travelers, expatriates, and other globally mobile populations, and to prevent the introduction, transmission, and spread of communicable diseases through regulation, science, research, preparedness, and response." In this capacity it is imperative for Captain Waterman to successfully collaborate with public health professionals in multiple U.S. jurisdictions, as well as internationally. Specifically, he works with staff at San Diego, CA and El Paso, Texas quarantine stations, CDC headquarters in Atlanta, GA, and the Mexico Ministry of Health Directorate of Epidemiology in Mexico City.

In order to optimize the productivity of these partnerships, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Secretariat of Health of Mexico developed ‘Guidelines for Cooperation on Public Health Events of Mutual Interest (pdf),’ which are published on the DGMQ’s webpages. These guidelines are based on the following general principles: (1) the need to share information; (2) timely sharing of information; (3) commitment to providing high quality information (i.e., accuracy and completeness); (4) clearly defined communication pathways; (5) confidentiality, protection of privacy, and dissemination of information; (6) joint action to respond to a public health event; (7) consideration of differences between health systems; and (8) respect for the sovereignty and laws of each country. Captain Waterman brings his considerable expertise to this panel and is sure to provide attendees with insights into how to successfully collaborate.

Screen shot of Malaria Atlas Project parasite rate map with key.

The second panel presenter, Simon I. Hay, is Professor of Epidemiology and Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. He investigates spatial and temporal features of infectious disease epidemiology in order to facilitate the rational implementation of disease control and intervention strategies. Professor Hay developed and manages the Malaria Atlas Project, which is an international collaboration of researchers that aim to improve the cartography of malaria (project funded by Wellcome Trust). Participating researchers collaborate to develop new and innovative methods of mapping malaria risk with the goal of producing a comprehensive range of maps and estimates. One of the main tenants of this project is open and free access of information and resources (available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License). To this end, you can view and use the Malaria Atlas Project data yourself by clicking here. This project has been extremely successful and provides a potential model for other collaboration-based projects.

To find out more about the 2012 ISDS Conference, please visit our website. The detailed agenda is now available here.

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

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

 

Highlight ISDS Workshop: Assessment tools to meet the core capacities of the surveillance goal of the 2005 International Health Regulations

2012 Pre-Conference Workshops

Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina

1380 Harbor Island Drive, San Diego, California 92101 

Resolution WHA65.23, developed at the World Health Assembly in May 2012, recognizes the importance of having tools and procedures available for the continuous monitoring of core capacities specified in the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHRs). The resolution urges state parties, “… to take the necessary steps to prepare and carry out appropriate national implementation plans in order to ensure the required strengthening, development and maintenance of the core public health capacities...”

 

In order to directly address the needs discussed at the World Health Assembly, ISDS, with support from WHO, is developing a one-day, hands-on training designed to help nations meet the core capacities of the surveillance goal of the 2005 IHRs. The training will feature an overview of the IHRs (2005) by Dr. Stella Chungong, lead of the IHR Monitoring Team at the World Health Organization. This overview will be followed by an introduction to concepts and tools to assess current performance and gaps in performance by Dr. Scott McNabb, Public Health Practice, LLC. Participants will also have an opportunity to implement these tools on indicators specific to their country (or on sample indicators).

The final session of the Pre-Conference Workshop is called the ‘Swap Meet’ – an interactive session during which participants may walk around to tables and informally discuss topics and systems with system developers, users, and content experts.

Reserve your space and register now.

Find information on other Pre-Conference Workshop Track options here.

This Pre-Conference Workshop Track is being sponsored in part by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

ISDS's Global Outreach Committee hosted an International Health Regulations Webinar Series featuring both Dr. Chungong and Dr. McNabb. View the recordings here.

2012 Data Visualization Event at the ISDS Conference

Expanding Collaborations to Chart a New Course in

Public Health Surveillance

Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina

1380 Harbor Island Drive | San Diego, California 92101

*Image developed by MIT's SENSEable City Lab and taken from here.

Do you want to participate in the ISDS Conference? Work with a new and unique dataset? Show off your visualization skills?

Submit a visualization for the 2012 Data Visualization Event!  

Apply your visualization skills to a rich, de-identified set of ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) data from Practice Fusion, a free, web-based EHR vendor. These are not your typical syndromic surveillance data; there are no free text data, the most specific time frame is year, and the most specific geographic location is state. What these data do include, however, are allergies, conditions, diagnoses, immunizations, lab orders and results, medications, patient demographics, smoking status and vital signs. In partnership with Kaggle, Practice Fusion released these 10,000 de-identified, HIPAA-compliant medical records to spur innovation into new uses of clinical data to improve public health and patient care.  

Since this is a unique dataset, and due to the growing importance of chronic disease surveillance, we are challenging participants to use the data to develop visualizations for chronic disease surveillance.

Details can be found here.

Submissions will be presented during the ISDS Conference enabling conference attendees to gain knowledge of visualization tools and techniques.

 

To sign up, please complete the registration form by September 27, 2012.

 

*Please note that use of the Practice Fusion dataset for the ISDS Data Visualization Event does not constitute an endorsement by ISDS for any of Practice Fusion's products and/or services.

2012 London Olympics at the 2012 ISDS Conference

Expanding Collaborations to Chart a New Course in

Public Health Surveillance

Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina

1380 Harbor Island Drive | San Diego, California 92101

Image Source[2]: Flight patterns to London, UK.

Are you obsessed with the 2012 Olympic games in London? Maybe you’ve even called in sick to work in order to watch your favorite events? Well, come December, we will remind you of all the Olympic excitement and you can even bring the Olympics back to work! The 2012 ISDS Scientific Program Committee is developing a panel on Disease Surveillance for Mass Gatherings for this year’s Conference agenda and is pleased to announce that Dr. Brian McCloskey, Health Protection Agency (HPA), will present on this panel.

Dr. McCloskey is the Regional Director for the HPA in London and he has had the lead role in planning for the 2012 London Olympics. He has also worked with the World Health Organization’s Mass Gatherings Advisory Group since 2008, helping develop their guidance and toolkit. Dr. McCloskey was quoted in an article published in the Chicago Tribune, “There’s the potential to increase the importation and spread of disease we don’t normally see in London.” In order to prepare for this potential, Dr. McCloskey and his colleagues significantly increased disease surveillance activities throughout the country.

Dr. McCloskey will bring this wealth of experience to San Diego December 4-5^th so that you may bring this knowledge back to your public health agency to help inform preparations for the next mass gathering nearest you.   

Reference:

1. Hamzelou J. Crowded places like the Olympics breeding grounds for disease. Chicago Tribune. 25 July 2012. View here.
2. Image Source: BIO.DIASPORA AT ST MICHAEL'S HOSPITAL, TORONTO.

Additional Articles and Publications:

1. Heinsbroek E, Said B, Kirkbride H. A new surveillance system for undiagnosed serious infectious illness for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Eurosurveillance. 2012;17(31). Available here.
2. Cressey D and Callaway E. Science at the Olympics: Team science. Nature. 18 July 2012. View here.
3. Olympic Games draws in huge crowds… and germs. Metro News. 23 July 2012. View here.