Infectious Disease Informatics: Syndromic Surveillance for Public Health and Bio-Defense / Edition 1

by Hsinchun Chen, Daniel Zeng, Ping Yan

Overview

Computer-based infectious disease surveillance systems are capable of real-time or near real-time detection of serious illnesses and potential bioterrorism agent exposures and represent a major step forward in disease surveillance. Infectious Disease Informatics: Syndromic Surveillance for Public Health and Bio-Defense is an in-depth monograph that analyzes and evaluates the outbreak modeling and detection capabilities of existing surveillance systems under a unified framework, and presents the first book-length coverage of the subject from an informatics-driven perspective.

Individual chapters consider the state of the art, including the facilitation of data collection, sharing and transmission; a focus on various outbreak detection methods; data visualization and information dissemination issues; and system assessment and other policy issues. Eight chapters then report on several real-world case studies, summarizing and comparing eight syndromic surveillance systems, including those that have been adopted by many public health agencies (e.g., RODS and BioSense). The book concludes with a discussion of critical issues and challenges, with a look to future directions.

This book is an excellent source of current information for researchers in public health and IT. Government public health officials and private-sector practitioners in both public health and IT will find the most up-to-date information available, and students from a variety of disciplines, including public health, biostatistics, information systems, computer science, and public administration and policy will get a comprehensive look at the concepts, techniques, and practices of syndromic surveillance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441912770
Publisher:	Springer US
Publication date:	12/17/2009
Series:	Integrated Series in Information Systems , #21
Edition description:	2010
Pages:	210
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

SYNDROMIC SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS.- Infectious Disease Informatics: An Introduction and An Analysis Framework.- Public Health Syndromic Surveillance Systems.- Syndromic Surveillance Data Sources and Collection Strategies.- Data Analysis and Outbreak Detection.- Data Visualization, Information Dissemination, and Alerting.- System Assessment and Evaluation.- SYNDROMIC SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM CASE STUDIES.- BioSense.- RODS.- BioPortal.- ESSENCE.- New York City Syndromic Surveillance Systems.- EARS.- Argus.- HealthMap.- Challenges and Future Directions.

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Edward K Mensah, PhD (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Description: This book summarizes and describes the state-of-art research on the development and implementation of health surveillance systems that use early indicators of disease to identify outbreaks. The contents range from descriptions of data sources and collection to data analysis and outbreak detection, data visualization and information dissemination, and surveillance systems assessment and evaluation.
Purpose: The purpose is to present a synthesized review of the state-of-the art knowledge in syndromic surveillance research and practice as well as guidelines for researchers.
Audience: The book was written for upper-level undergraduates and graduates in health sciences, computer science, and public administration, researchers in public health and IT, and government public health officials.
Features: The authors reviewed over 200 publications from reputable health sciences and public health journals and over 50 syndromic surveillance systems in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Australia, Japan, and Korea. The conceptual framework of syndromic surveillance presented in the book is based on three functional areas: 1) data sources and collection methodologies; 2) data analysis and outbreak detection; and 3) data visualization, information dissemination, and reporting. The book evaluates the effectiveness of different data sources, thereby providing academic researchers and public health practitioners with rationales for selecting specific data sources to address public health problems. It further concisely describes the standardized vocabularies and the statistical techniques used to develop interoperable syndromic surveillance systems. The authors also detail the techniques of data visualization, information dissemination, and alerting methods. The well-written chapter on assessment and evaluation provides readers with the important factors to consider and the methodologies to use in developing evaluation strategies. The only shortcoming of the book is the absence of a discussion of the application of cloud computing to development of surveillance systems.
Assessment: Researchers, practitioners, and graduate students as well as policy makers with interests in public health surveillance need to have ready access to a book that critically reviews the existing syndromic surveillance applications and addresses the differences in data collection methodologies, data analysis, interpretation, visualization, and aberration detection algorithms. This is the best book that presents a comprehensive coverage of syndromic surveillance systems.

Doody's Review Service

From the reviews:

“This book summarizes and describes the state-of-art research on the development and implementation of health surveillance systems that use early indicators of disease to identify outbreaks. … The book was written for upper-level undergraduates and graduates in health sciences, computer science, and public administration, researchers in public health and IT, and government public health officials. … This is the best book that presents a comprehensive coverage of syndromic surveillance systems.” (Edward K. Mensah, Doody’s Review Service, August, 2010)

From the Publisher

Reviewer: Edward K Mensah, PhD (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Description: This book summarizes and describes the state-of-art research on the development and implementation of health surveillance systems that use early indicators of disease to identify outbreaks. The contents range from descriptions of data sources and collection to data analysis and outbreak detection, data visualization and information dissemination, and surveillance systems assessment and evaluation.
Purpose: The purpose is to present a synthesized review of the state-of-the art knowledge in syndromic surveillance research and practice as well as guidelines for researchers.
Audience: The book was written for upper-level undergraduates and graduates in health sciences, computer science, and public administration, researchers in public health and IT, and government public health officials.
Features: The authors reviewed over 200 publications from reputable health sciences and public health journals and over 50 syndromic surveillance systems in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Australia, Japan, and Korea. The conceptual framework of syndromic surveillance presented in the book is based on three functional areas: 1) data sources and collection methodologies; 2) data analysis and outbreak detection; and 3) data visualization, information dissemination, and reporting. The book evaluates the effectiveness of different data sources, thereby providing academic researchers and public health practitioners with rationales for selecting specific data sources to address public health problems. It further concisely describes the standardized vocabularies and the statistical techniques used to develop interoperable syndromic surveillance systems. The authors also detail the techniques of data visualization, information dissemination, and alerting methods. The well-written chapter on assessment and evaluation provides readers with the important factors to consider and the methodologies to use in developing evaluation strategies. The only shortcoming of the book is the absence of a discussion of the application of cloud computing to development of surveillance systems.
Assessment: Researchers, practitioners, and graduate students as well as policy makers with interests in public health surveillance need to have ready access to a book that critically reviews the existing syndromic surveillance applications and addresses the differences in data collection methodologies, data analysis, interpretation, visualization, and aberration detection algorithms. This is the best book that presents a comprehensive coverage of syndromic surveillance systems.

Doody Reviews

Reviewer: Edward K Mensah, PhD(University of Illinois at Chicago)
Description: This book summarizes and describes the state-of-art research on the development and implementation of health surveillance systems that use early indicators of disease to identify outbreaks. The contents range from descriptions of data sources and collection to data analysis and outbreak detection, data visualization and information dissemination, and surveillance systems assessment and evaluation.
Purpose: The purpose is to present a synthesized review of the state-of-the art knowledge in syndromic surveillance research and practice as well as guidelines for researchers.
Audience: The book was written for upper-level undergraduates and graduates in health sciences, computer science, and public administration, researchers in public health and IT, and government public health officials.
Features: The authors reviewed over 200 publications from reputable health sciences and public health journals and over 50 syndromic surveillance systems in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Australia, Japan, and Korea. The conceptual framework of syndromic surveillance presented in the book is based on three functional areas: 1) data sources and collection methodologies; 2) data analysis and outbreak detection; and 3) data visualization, information dissemination, and reporting. The book evaluates the effectiveness of different data sources, thereby providing academic researchers and public health practitioners with rationales for selecting specific data sources to address public health problems. It further concisely describes the standardized vocabularies and the statistical techniques used to develop interoperable syndromic surveillance systems. The authors also detail the techniques of data visualization, information dissemination, and alerting methods. The well-written chapter on assessment and evaluation provides readers with the important factors to consider and the methodologies to use in developing evaluation strategies. The only shortcoming of the book is the absence of a discussion of the application of cloud computing to development of surveillance systems.
Assessment: Researchers, practitioners, and graduate students as well as policy makers with interests in public health surveillance need to have ready access to a book that critically reviews the existing syndromic surveillance applications and addresses the differences in data collection methodologies, data analysis, interpretation, visualization, and aberration detection algorithms. This is the best book that presents a comprehensive coverage of syndromic surveillance systems.