scholarly journals Changes in public preferences for technologically enhanced surveillance following the COVID-19 pandemic: a discrete choice experiment

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. e041592
Author(s):  
Chris Degeling ◽  
Gang Chen ◽  
Gwendolyn L Gilbert ◽  
Victoria Brookes ◽  
Thi Thai ◽  
...  

ObjectivesAs governments attempt to navigate a path out of COVID-19 restrictions, robust evidence is essential to inform requirements for public acceptance of technologically enhanced communicable disease surveillance systems. We examined the value of core surveillance system attributes to the Australian public, before and during the early stages of the current pandemic.DesignA discrete choice experiment was conducted in Australia with a representative group of respondents, before and after the WHO declared COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. We identified and investigated the relative importance of seven attributes associated with technologically enhanced disease surveillance: respect for personal autonomy; privacy/confidentiality; data certainty/confidence; data security; infectious disease mortality prevention; infectious disease morbidity prevention; and attribution of (causal) responsibility. Specifically, we explored how the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak influenced participant responses.Setting and participants2008 Australians (general public) completed the experiment: 793 before COVID-19 outbreak onset (mean age 45.9 years, 50.2% male) and 1215 after onset (mean age 47.2 years, 49% male).ResultsAll seven attributes significantly influenced respondents’ preferences for communicable disease surveillance systems. After onset, participants demonstrated greater preference for a surveillance system that could prevent a higher number of illnesses and deaths, and were less concerned about their personal autonomy. However, they also increased their preference for a system with high data security.ConclusionsPublic acceptance of technology-based communicable disease surveillance is situation dependent. During an epidemic, there is likely to be greater tolerance of technologically enhanced disease surveillance systems that result in restrictions on personal activity if such systems can prevent high morbidity and mortality. However, this acceptance of lower personal autonomy comes with an increased requirement to ensure data security. These findings merit further research as the pandemic unfolds and strategies are put in place that enable individuals and societies to live with SARS-CoV-2 endemicity.

Author(s):  
Manish Kumar Dwivedi ◽  
Suvashish Kumar Pandey ◽  
Prashant Kumar Singh

To guard people against some grave infectious disease, the surveillance system is a key performance measure of global public health threats and vulnerability. The diseases surveillance system helps in public health monitor, control, and prevent infectious diseases. Infectious diseases remain major causes of death. It's important to monitor and surveillance worldwide for developing a framework for risk assessment and health regulation. Surveillance systems help us in understanding the factors driving infectious disease and developing new technological aptitudes with modeling, pathogen determination, characterization, diagnostics, and communications. This chapter discussed surveillance system working, progress toward global public healthy society considering perspectives for the future and improvement of infectious disease surveillance without limited and fragmented capabilities, and making even global coverage.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nayeb Fadaei Dehcheshmeh ◽  
Mohammad Arab ◽  
Abbas Rahimi Fouroshani ◽  
Fereshteh Farzianpour

<p><strong>BACKGROUND:</strong> Communicable Disease Surveillance and reporting is one of the key elements to combat against diseases and their control. Fast and timely recognition of communicable diseases can be helpful in controlling of epidemics. One of the main sources of management of communicable diseases reporting is hospitals that collect communicable diseases’ reports and send them to health authorities. One of the focal problems and challenges in this regard is incomplete and imprecise reports from hospitals. In this study, while examining the implementation processes of the communicable diseases surveillance in hospitals, non-medical people who were related to the program have been studied by a qualitative approach.</p><p><strong>METHODS:</strong> This study was conducted using qualitative content analysis method. Participants in the study included 36 informants, managers, experts associated with health and surveillance of communicable diseases that were selected using targeted sampling and with diverse backgrounds and work experience (different experiences in primary health surveillance and treatment, Ministry levels, university staff and operations (hospitals and health centers) and sampling was continued until  arrive to data saturation.</p><p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Interviews were analyzed after the elimination of duplicate codes and integration of them. Finally, 73 codes were acquired and categorized in 6 major themes and 21 levels. The main themes included: policy making and planning, development of resources, organizing, collaboration and participation, surveillance process, and monitoring and evaluation of the surveillance system. In point of interviewees, attention to these themes is necessary to develop effective and efficient surveillance system for communicable diseases.</p><p><strong>CONCLUSION: </strong>Surveillance system in hospitals is important in developing proper macro - policies in health sector, adoption of health related decisions and preventive plans appropriate to the existing situation. Compilation, changing, improving, monitoring and continuous updating of surveillance systems can play a significant role in its efficiency and effectiveness. In the meantime, policy makers’ and senior managers’ support in development and implementation of communicable disease surveillance’ plans and their reporting plays a key and core role.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason A Roberts ◽  
Linda K Hobday ◽  
Aishah Ibrahim ◽  
Bruce R Thorley

Australia monitors its polio-free status by conducting surveillance for cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) in children less than 15 years of age, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Cases of AFP in children are notified to the Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit or the Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance System and faecal specimens are referred for virological investigation to the National Enterovirus Reference Laboratory. In 2017, no cases of poliomyelitis were reported from clinical surveillance and Australia reported 1.33 non-polio AFP cases per 100,000 children, meeting the WHO performance criterion for a sensitive surveillance system. Three non-polio enteroviruses, coxsackievirus B1, echovirus 11 and enterovirus A71, were identified from clinical specimens collected from AFP cases. Australia established enterovirus and environmental surveillance systems to complement the clinical system focussed on children and an ambiguous vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 was isolated from sewage in Melbourne. In 2017, 22 cases of wild polio were reported with three countries remaining endemic: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.


Author(s):  
Jacob B. Aguilar ◽  
Jeremy Samuel Faust ◽  
Lauren M. Westafer ◽  
Juan B. Gutierrez

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel human respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Asymptomatic carriers of the virus display no clinical symptoms but are known to be contagious. Recent evidence reveals that this sub-population, as well as persons with mild disease, are a major contributor in the propagation of COVID-19. The asymptomatic sub-population frequently escapes detection by public health surveillance systems. Because of this, the currently accepted estimates of the basic reproduction number (ℛ0) of the disease are inaccurate. It is unlikely that a pathogen can blanket the planet in three months with an ℛ0 in the vicinity of 3, as reported in the literature (1–6). In this manuscript, we present a mathematical model taking into account asymptomatic carriers. Our results indicate that an initial value of the effective reproduction number could range from 5.5 to 25.4, with a point estimate of 15.4, assuming mean parameters. The first three weeks of the model exhibit exponential growth, which is in agreement with average case data collected from thirteen countries with universal health care and robust communicable disease surveillance systems; the average rate of growth in the number of reported cases is 23.3% per day during this period.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-431
Author(s):  
Katie Cueva ◽  
Andrea Fenaughty ◽  
Jessica Aulasa Liendo ◽  
Samantha Hyde-Rolland

Chronic diseases with behavioral risk factors are now the leading causes of death in the United States. A national Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) monitors those risk factors; however, there is a need for national and state evaluations of chronic disease surveillance systems. The Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed a framework on evaluating noncommunicable disease–related surveillance systems; however, no implementation of this framework has yet been published. This article describes the process of, and offers lessons learned from, implementing the evaluation framework to assess the Alaska BRFSS. This implementation evaluation may inform assessments of other state and regional chronic disease surveillance systems and offers insight on the positive potential to consult key stakeholders to guide evaluation priorities.


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