Abstract Submission Deadline Extended

New Deadline: September 9, 2014 at 11:59 PM

ISDS announces a deadline extension for abstract submission for the 2014 ISDS Conference. The new FINAL DEADLINE for abstract submission is Tuesday, September 9, 2014 at 11:59 PM US EDT. No further extensions will be granted past this date.

Details On submission types and tract descriptions may be fund on the ISDS website here: http://www.syndromic.org/annual-conference/2014-isds-conference/abstract-submission

Take advantage of this 6-day extension to finalize your submissions for the opportunity to present your work to an international audience at the 2014 ISDS Conference this December 10-11th.

Ready to submit an abstract right now? Follow this link to go directly to the submission page: http://isds2014.abstractcentral.com

Learn more about the 2014 ISDS conference being held December 10-11, 2014 with Pre-Conference Trainings on December 9, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia, PA on the ISDS website here: http://www.syndromic.org/annual-conference/2014-isds-conference

IMED Abstract Deadline: July 1st

Dear Colleague,

Take note: The IMED 2014 ABSTRACT DEADLINE is on JULY 1. That is only one week from now!

Plan now to attend the International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance - IMED 2014 this coming October 31-November 3 in Vienna, Austria, http://imed.isid.org, and I encourage you to submit one or more abstracts https://esociety.netkey.at/isid/imed/abstractsubmission describing your work related to emerging diseases so that you have an opportunity to present your work.

There will be opportunities for both poster and oral presentations.

Now established as a fixture for those whose work deals with threats from infectious agents, IMED 2014 will once again bring leading scientists, clinicians and policy makers to Vienna for a forum where those working in diverse specialties and diverse regions can meet, discuss, present and challenge one another with findings and new ideas.

Please contact info@isid.org if you have any questions about IMED 2014 or abstract submission. I look forward to meeting you in Vienna!

Best regards,

Larry Madoff

Chair, Scientific Program Committee

Editor, ProMED-mail

2014 ISDS Conference: Call for Abstracts

Abstract submissions are now being accepted for presentation at the 2014 International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) Conference to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 10-11, 2014. The theme for this year's conference— Public Health Surveillance - Challenges and Solutions for the Road Ahead— will highlight key challenges voiced by the public health surveillance community, and include strategies for incorporating the latest approaches, methodologies, and results into data-driven practices, programs, and policies. Submissions that address the conference theme, especially novel approaches for addressing surveillance challenges as well as the effective translation of evidence into surveillance practice are encouraged.

The ISDS conference is the premier annual scientific gathering for researchers and practitioners involved in biosurveillance. The conference attracts individuals from 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 2014 ISDS Conference will feature internationally renowned speakers from health departments, leading academic institutions, government agencies, international health agencies and top industrial organizations.

The 2014 Scientific Program Committee is seeking abstracts that focus on automated or timely collection of pre-diagnostic or diagnostic data from clinical information systems to inform infectious disease, chronic disease, and injury public health surveillance; near-real-time surveillance to support early event detection, event characterization, case finding, clinical decision support, hypothesis development, situational awareness, or evaluation of public health interventions; and development of methodologies that provide flexible tools to complement traditional surveillance systems and registries.

Abstracts accepted for presentation at the 2014 ISDS Conference will be published in a special supplement of the Online Journal of Public Health Informatics.

For more information, please visit the ISDS website.

2013 ISDS Conference Highlight: Submitted Abstracts

ISDS would like to thank all those who answered the call to be a part of the exciting 2013 ISDS Conference program by submitting an abstract for presentation at the upcoming Conference.

2013 Abstract Submission Overview

Abstracts were submitted in four different categories: analytical methods (49 submissions), informatics (53 submissions), policy (15 submissions), and practice (98 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 (141 abstracts), with 58 submitting for poster, 4 for panel, and 8 for roundtable presentation. New this year, the 2013 ISDS Scientific Program Committee also accepted an additional submission type: lightning talks! These presentation options provide even more opportunity for the community to develop an engaging and relevant program.

Authors from 36 different countries submitted, which is an ISDS record (see map below).

 

Abstract Review

We are now into the abstract review period. During this time, each abstract will be rated by at least three volunteer reviewers – an exceptional group of 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 4, 2013.

To find out more about the 2013 ISDS Conference, please visit: http://www.syndromic.org/annual-conference/2013-isds-conference.

Tera Reynolds, MPH, Program Manager, ISDS

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 

Public Health Informatics 2013 Virtual Event - Abstract Submission Deadline Extended to June 2nd!

Invitation to Participate in a Virtual Event

"Strengthening Public Health -- Health Care Collaboration"

July 16-18, 2013

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) along with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) invite you to participate in an upcoming Public Health Informatics virtual event "Strengthening Public Health--Health Care Collaboration" that will take place July 16-18, 2013. This virtual event provides a zero cost platform for public health partners to share and collaborate with partners all over the globe. Selected abstracts will be required to produce a video submission for their abstract for broadcasting during the virtual event. 

You may submit abstracts for the following tracks:

• Informatics Policy and Practice: virtual sessions will focus on national and international policy issues and their implications for public health informatics programs; applied informatics projects for programmatic support; and new initiatives.
• Research & Innovation: virtual sessions will focus on informatics research and technological innovation to public health and clinical settings.
• Supporting Public Health Evidence Base through Informatics Practice: virtual sessions will focus on strengthening public health through knowledge sharing, evaluation, and visualization and reporting. 

The Deadline for Abstract Submission is now June 2, 2013. Click here to complete the online Abstract Submission Form.

• Applicants are notified of the status of selection on June 7, 2013
• This event is completely virtual; attendees will participate in the session from the comfort of their own desks.
• If selected, the presentation must be pre-recorded with video and audio capabilities.
• This virtual event is free of charge and open to the public health community.

We look forward to receiving your submission for the virtual meeting taking place on July 16-18, 2013. 

For more information, please visit this website.

2013 CSTE Annual Conference - Late Breaker Abstracts

On behalf of CSTE, ISDS encourages its members and community to consider submitting late-breaker abstracts to the 2013 CSTE Annual Conference by Friday, April 19th. Information about the late-breaker abstract session and the CSTE Annual Conference can be found here in the below message and on the 2013 CSTE Annual Conference website: http://www.csteconference.org. 

CSTE is now accepting late-breaker abstracts for the 2013 CSTE Annual Conference in Pasadena, California.  Abstracts must be received no later than Friday, April 19 by 11:59 PM EDT through the online CSTE abstract submission site at http://9nl.it/LateBreakers/. 

The late-breaker session will be on Wednesday, June 13 at 10:30 am.  Abstracts for this session are highly competitive, as only abstracts containing truly late-breaking research or outbreak or event responses will be considered.  Proposals that are incomplete, late, or submitted in an inappropriate format will not be considered. 

Guidelines for late-breaker abstract submission are available on the CSTE website at http://www.csteconference.org/AC13AbsratctGuidesFINAL2.pdf.

Please contact the CSTE National Office at (770) 458-3811 with any questions related to the abstract submission process.

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

IMED 2013 Conference - Abstract Deadline

As a co-sponsor of the International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance (IMED) 2013, ISDS would like to share with the surveillance community an important notice from the IMED team about their upcoming abstract submission deadline. ISDS encourages you to learn more about the 2013 meeting that will take place in Vienna, Austria by following the link in the message below and consider submitting an abstract for this incredible international meeting of the minds. Read on to learn more about this opportunity. 

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Dear Colleague,

I hope that you plan to attend the 4th International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance this coming February 15-18 in Vienna, Austria http://imed.isid.org/. Since its inception, IMED has been a summit that unifies our approach to pathogens in the broadest ecological context.  Drawing together human and veterinary health specialists, IMED serves as a true One Health forum where those working in diverse specialties and diverse regions can meet, discuss, present and challenge one another with findings and new ideas.

We want to remind you that the IMED 2013 ABSTRACT DEADLINE is on DECEMBER 1, 2012.  That is only 2 months away!  Please consider submitting an abstract describing your investigations related to emerging diseases and surveillance so that you have an opportunity to present your work: https://esociety.netkey.at/isid/imed/abstractsubmission/

ProMED and the International Society for Infectious Diseases, along with all of our co-sponsors and participating organizations, look forward to welcoming you to Vienna.

Best wishes,

Larry Madoff

ProMED Editor

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