Week 4 discussion

Overview

Disease Surveillance

This special topic looks at the use of computer-automated techniques for performing real-time outbreak and disease surveillance (RODS). The main reading provides an overview of the different components of the system. The RODS Laboratory websiteLinks to an external site. provides more information about the project.

Here at USF, we used the CATCH data warehouse (a project that we will review later) to do some work on bioterrorism surveillance. As part of the project, we integrated Florida wildfire data with hospital discharge data and other health-related sources. This provided a naturally occurring experiment for testing detection algorithms since real data is thankfully very rare! Database systems provide the foundation for integrating data to create opportunities for cross-cutting applications. Please see the further readings area for a background paper.

For your first post, summarize the reading and add your thoughts. Feel free to include external sources, experiences from your work, etc. in the discussion

Readings

The main reading for this special topic is the Espino et al. (MEDINFO 2004) article "The RODS Open Source Project: Removing a Barrier to Syndromic Surveillance": Espino_et_al_2004_RODS_Syndromic_Surveillance.pdfDownload Espino_et_al_2004_RODS_Syndromic_Surveillance.pdf Further Readings (Optional)

This additional reading gives some background on USF-based research in healthcare data warehousing that looked at integrating data (such as Florida wildfires) for use in assessing surveillance algorithms: Griffiths_ISI2006Wildfire.pdf Download Griffiths_ISI2006Wildfire.pdf.

One primary post (minimum 300 words)