This text explores the critical issues in the statistical analysis and interpretation of public health surveillance data. It covers statistical methods for detecting disease outbreaks and clusters, the use of survey methods and interpreting time trends and geographic patterns, among other topics.

Chronic diseases are common and costly, yet they are also among the most preventable health problems. Comprehensive and accurate disease surveillance systems are needed to implement successful efforts which will reduce the burden of chronic diseases on the U.S. population. A number of sources of surveillance data-including population surveys, cohort studies, disease registries, administrative health data, and vital statistics-contribute critical information about chronic disease. But no central surveillance system provides the information needed to analyze how chronic disease impacts the U.S. population, to identify public health priorities, or to track the progress of preventive efforts. A Nationwide Framework for Surveillance of Cardiovascular and Chronic Lung Diseases outlines a conceptual framework for building a national chronic disease surveillance system focused primarily on cardiovascular and chronic lung diseases. This system should be capable of providing data on disparities in incidence and prevalence of the diseases by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geographic region, along with data on disease risk factors, clinical care delivery, and functional health outcomes. This coordinated surveillance system is needed to integrate and expand existing information across the multiple levels of decision making in order to generate actionable, timely knowledge for a range of stakeholders at the local, state or regional, and national levels. The recommendations presented in A Nationwide Framework for Surveillance of Cardiovascular and Chronic Lung Diseases focus on data collection, resource allocation, monitoring activities, and implementation. The report also recommends that systems evolve along with new knowledge about emerging risk factors, advancing technologies, and new understanding of the basis for disease. This report will inform decision-making among federal health agencies, especially the Department of Health and Human Services; public health and clinical practitioners; non-governmental organizations; and policy makers, among others.

This fully updated edition of Infectious Disease Surveillance is for frontline public health practitioners, epidemiologists, and clinical microbiologists who are engaged in communicable disease control. It is also a foundational text for trainees in public health, applied epidemiology, postgraduate medicine and nursing programs. The second edition portrays both the conceptual framework and practical aspects of infectious disease surveillance. It is a comprehensive resource designed to improve the tracking of infectious diseases and to serve as a starting point in the development of new surveillance systems. Infectious Disease Surveillance includes over 45 chapters from over 100 contributors, and topics organized into six sections based on major themes. Section One highlights the critical role surveillance plays in public health and it provides an overview of the current International Health Regulations (2005) in addition to successes and challenges in infectious disease eradication. Section Two describes surveillance systems based on logical program areas such as foodborne illnesses, vector-borne diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, viral hepatitis healthcare and transplantation associated infections. Attention is devoted to programs for monitoring unexplained deaths, agents of bioterrorism, mass gatherings, and disease associated with international travel. Sections Three and Four explore the uses of the Internet and wireless technologies to advance infectious disease surveillance in various settings with emphasis on best practices based on deployed systems. They also address molecular laboratory methods, and statistical and geospatial analysis, and evaluation of systems for early epidemic detection. Sections Five and Six discuss legal and ethical considerations, communication strategies and applied epidemiology-training programs. The rest of the chapters offer public-private partnerships, as well lessons from the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza pandemic and future directions for infectious disease surveillance.

With COVID-19 sweeping across the globe with near impunity, it is thwarting governments and health organizations efforts to contain it. Not since the 1918 Spanish Flu have citizens of developed countries experienced such a large-scale disease outbreak that is having devastating health and economic impacts. One reason such outbreaks are not more common has been the success of the public health community, including epidemiologists and biostatisticians, in identifying and then mitigating or eliminating the outbreaks. Monitoring the Health of Populations by Tracking Disease Outbreaks: Saving Humanity from the Next Plague is the story of the application of statistics for disease detection and tracking. The work of public health officials often crucially depends on statistical methods to help discern whether an outbreak may be occurring and, if there is sufficient evidence of an outbreak, then to locate and track it. Statisticians also help collect critical information, and they analyze the resulting data to help investigators zero in on a cause for a disease. With the recent outbreaks of diseases such as swine and bird flu, Ebola, and now COVID-19, the role that epidemiologists and biostatisticians play is more important than ever. Features: · Discusses the crucial roles of statistics in early disease detection. · Outlines the concepts and methods of disease surveillance. · Covers surveillance techniques for communicable diseases like Zika and chronic diseases such as cancer. · Gives real world examples of disease investigations including smallpox, syphilis, anthrax, yellow fever, and microcephaly (and its relationship to the Zika virus). Via the process of identifying an outbreak, finding its cause, and developing a plan to prevent its reoccurrence, this book tells the story of how medical and public health professionals use statistics to help mitigate the effects of disease. This book will help readers understand how statisticians and epidemiologists help combat the spread of such diseases in order to improve public health across the world.

The Forum on Emerging Infections was created in 1996 in response to a request from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. The goal of the forum is to provide structured opportunities for representatives from academia, industry, professional and interest groups, and government to examine and discuss scientific and policy issues that relate to research, prevention, detection, and management of emerging infectious diseases. A critical part of this mission has been the convening of a series of workshops. Public Health Systems and Emerging Infections summarizes the fourth in a series of five workshops. With a focus on our knowledge and understanding of the role of private and public health sectors in emerging infectious disease surveillance and response, the participants explored the effects of privatization of public health laboratories and the modernization of public health care. The issues discussed included epidemiological investigation, surveillance, communication, coordination, resource allocations, and economic support.

Public health thrives on high-quality evidence, yet acquiring meaningful data on a population remains a central challenge of public health research and practice. Social monitoring, the analysis of social media and other user-generated web data, has brought advances in the way we leverage population data to understand health. Social media offers advantages over traditional data sources, including real-time data availability, ease of access, and reduced cost. Social media allows us to ask, and answer, questions we never thought possible. This book presents an overview of the progress on uses of social monitoring to study public health over the past decade. We explain available data sources, common methods, and survey research on social monitoring in a wide range of public health areas. Our examples come from topics such as disease surveillance, behavioral medicine, and mental health, among others. We explore the limitations and concerns of these methods. Our survey of this exciting new field of data-driven research lays out future research directions.

One of the biggest threats today is the uncertainty surrounding the emergence of a novel pathogen or the re-emergence of a known infectious disease that might result in disease outbreaks with great losses of human life and immense global economic consequences. Over the past six decades, most of the emerging infectious disease events in humans have been caused by zoonotic pathogens-those infectious agents that are transmitted from animals to humans. In June 2008, the Institute of Medicine's and National Research Council's Committee on Achieving Sustainable Global Capacity for Surveillance and Response to Emerging Diseases of Zoonotic Origin convened a workshop. This workshop addressed the reasons for the transmission of zoonotic disease and explored the current global capacity for zoonotic disease surveillance.

Food safety regulators face a daunting task: crafting food safety performance standards and systems that continue in the tradition of using the best available science to protect the health of the American public, while working within an increasingly antiquated and fragmented regulatory framework. Current food safety standards have been set over a period of years and under diverse circumstances, based on a host of scientific, legal, and practical constraints. Scientific Criteria to Ensure Safe Food lays the groundwork for creating new regulations that are consistent, reliable, and ensure the best protection for the health of American consumers. This book addresses the biggest concerns in food safetyâ€"including microbial disease surveillance plans, tools for establishing food safety criteria, and issues specific to meat, dairy, poultry, seafood, and produce. It provides a candid analysis of the problems with the current system, and outlines the major components of the task at hand: creating workable, streamlined food safety standards and practices.

Following the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the anthrax letters, the ability to detect biological threats as quickly as possible became a top priority. In 2003 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) introduced the BioWatch program-a federal monitoring system intended to speed detection of specific biological agents that could be released in aerosolized form during a biological attack. The present volume evaluates the costs and merits of both the current BioWatch program and the plans for a new generation of BioWatch devices. BioWatch and Public Health Surveillance also examines infectious disease surveillance through hospitals and public health agencies in the United States, and considers whether BioWatch and traditional infectious disease surveillance are redundant or complementary.

The first textbook on public health intelligence presents in depth the key concepts, methods, and objectives of this increasingly important competency. It systematically reviews types of evidence and data that comprise intelligence, effective techniques for assessment, analysis, and interpretation, and the role of this knowledge in quality health service delivery. The book’s learner-centered approach gives readers interactive context for mastering the processes of gathering and working with intelligence as well as its uses in informing public health decision-making. And its pragmatic framework will help establish standards for training, practice, and policy, leading to continued improvements in population health. This path-breaking resource: Offers a comprehensive, up-to-date introduction to public health intelligence, a core area of public health competency. Is suitable for both graduates’ and healthcare professionals’ training and development for national and international contexts. Helps readers apply theory to real-life scenarios, from multi-professional perspectives. Features activities, case studies, and discussion tasks for easy reader engagement. Anticipates and examines emerging developments in the field. Public Health Intelligence - Issues of Measure and Method is bedrock reading for postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students in public health, global health, health policy, health service management, nursing, medicine, statistics, epidemiology, quantitative methods, health intelligence, health inequality, and other allied healthcare fields. It is also a salient text for public health practitioners and health policymakers. "This book is a 'must-read' for students contemplating a career in Public Health or for anyone who is already in practice. The breadth of chapters from respected authors provide a detailed overview and critique of issues related to public health intelligence. A key strength of the book is that it is written with both students and practitioners in mind." Gurch Randhawa, PhD, FFPH, Professor of Diversity in Public Health & Director, Institute for Health Research, University of Bedfordshire, UK