Considerations for Improving Reporting and Analysis of Date-Based COVID-19 Surveillance Data by Public Health Agencies

2021 ◽  
Vol 111 (12) ◽  
pp. 2127-2132
Author(s):  
Ian Hennessee ◽  
Julie A. Clennon ◽  
Lance A. Waller ◽  
Uriel Kitron ◽  
J. Michael Bryan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Symptom Onset ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Reporting ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Surveillance Data ◽  
Onset Date ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Health Agencies

More than a year after the first domestic COVID-19 cases, the United States does not have national standards for COVID-19 surveillance data analysis and public reporting. This has led to dramatic variations in surveillance practices among public health agencies, which analyze and present newly confirmed cases by a wide variety of dates. The choice of which date to use should be guided by a balance between interpretability and epidemiological relevance. Report date is easily interpretable, generally representative of outbreak trends, and available in surveillance data sets. These features make it a preferred date for public reporting and visualization of surveillance data, although it is not appropriate for epidemiological analyses of outbreak dynamics. Symptom onset date is better suited for such analyses because of its clinical and epidemiological relevance. However, using symptom onset for public reporting of new confirmed cases can cause confusion because reporting lags result in an artificial decline in recent cases. We hope this discussion is a starting point toward a more standardized approach to date-based surveillance. Such standardization could improve public comprehension, policymaking, and outbreak response. (Am J Public Health. 2021;111(12):2127–2132. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306520 )

scholarly journals International Perspectives on COVID-19 Communication Ecologies: Public Health Agencies’ Online Communication in Italy, Sweden, and the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 000276422199283
Author(s):  
Serena Tagliacozzo ◽  
Frederike Albrecht ◽  
N. Emel Ganapati
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
Communication Ecology ◽  
Health Agencies ◽  
National Public Health

Communicating during a crisis can be challenging for public agencies as their communication ecology becomes increasingly complex while the need for fast and reliable public communication remains high. Using the lens of communication ecology, this study examines the online communication of national public health agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, Sweden, and the United States. Based on content analysis of Twitter data ( n = 856) and agency press releases ( n = 95), this article investigates two main questions: (1) How, and to what extent, did national public health agencies coordinate their online communication with other agencies and organizations? (2) How was online communication from the agencies diversified in terms of targeting specific organizations and social groups? Our findings indicate that public health agencies relied heavily on internal scientific expertise and predominately coordinated their communication efforts with national government agencies. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that agencies in each country differed in how they diversify information; however, all agencies provided tailored information to at least some organizations and social groups. Across the three countries, information tailored for several vulnerable groups (e.g., pregnant women, people with disabilities, immigrants, and homeless populations) was largely absent, which may contribute to negative consequences for these groups.

Use of syndromic surveillance data to monitor poisonings and drug overdoses in state and local public health agencies

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. i43-i49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Ising ◽  
Scott Proescholdbell ◽  
Katherine J Harmon ◽  
Nidhi Sachdeva ◽  
Stephen W Marshall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Syndromic Surveillance ◽  
Surveillance Data ◽  
Local Public Health ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
Health Agencies ◽  
Drug Overdoses ◽  
State And Local

Outdoor Recreationists’ Perceptions of Risk, Agency Trust, and Visitor Capacities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Rice ◽  
Timothy Mateer ◽  
Peter Newman ◽  
Ben Lawhon ◽  
Nathan Reigner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Outdoor Recreation ◽  
Public Lands ◽  
The United States ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Health Agencies ◽  
Community Risk

For nearly a century in the United States, visitor capacities have served as a means of preserving resources and the visitor experience on public lands. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in increased interest in implementing visitor capacities that could potentially limit use on public lands, suggesting a need to understand public support for their use in a timely manner. Risk and trust have been used in previous research concerning support for natural resource and outdoor recreation decision-making. Research in this realm includes investigation at the intersection of outdoor recreation and public health, specific to chronic wasting disease. Following this previous research, this study utilizes the constructs of risk and trust to examine support for visitor capacities that could potentially limit use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, this theory-driven research relies on the cultural theory of risk and social trust theory. Using structural equation modeling and a sample of avid outdoor enthusiasts, we examine how well 1) perceived individual risk, 2) perceived community risk, 3) trust in public health agencies, and 4) trust in public land agencies predict support for visitor capacities that could potentially limit use. An email-distributed online survey was available for 48 hours beginning on April 30, 2020—during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Measurement of perceived risk and trust followed previous research relating to outdoor recreation and public health. Results indicate that outdoor enthusiasts are concerned about their individual and community health and reported higher levels of trust in data coming directly from public health agencies as opposed to state or federal land management agencies. Additionally, perceived individual risk and perceived community risk were significant predictors of support for visitor capacities. These findings can be used to improve the effectiveness of messaging intended to connect perceived risk to the management of parks and protected areas, thus providing credibility to management actions implemented during the pandemic. Additional implications from this research include the need for additional research examining support for management actions that could potentially limit use on public lands, the multidimensionality of trust in outdoor recreation, and individual risk in frontcountry outdoor recreation settings.

Case Studies and Caveats

2019 ◽  
pp. 83-101
Author(s):  
Jonathan H. Marks
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Framing Effects ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Systemic Effects ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
Health Agencies ◽  
Food And Beverage

This chapter outlines several partnership case studies involving the food and beverage sector, especially soda companies. These case studies are drawn from the United States, Britain, and India. The analysis highlights certain problematic features—for example, use of corporate logos, trademarks, and color schemes that are likely to promote consumption of products that are exacerbating obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). But, more fundamentally, the analysis ties the case studies to the broader systemic effects discussed in the preceding chapters. These include framing effects, agenda distortion, and impacts on the integrity of and trust in public health agencies.

scholarly journals Barriers to hospital electronic public health reporting and implications for the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
pp. 1306-1309
Author(s):  
A Jay Holmgren ◽  
Nate C Apathy ◽  
Julia Adler-Milstein
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Surveillance Data ◽  
Electronic Data ◽  
American Hospital ◽  
American Hospital Association ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
Hospital Referral ◽  
Health Agencies ◽  
The Impact ◽  
To Receive

Abstract We sought to identify barriers to hospital reporting of electronic surveillance data to local, state, and federal public health agencies and the impact on areas projected to be overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Using 2018 American Hospital Association data, we identified barriers to surveillance data reporting and combined this with data on the projected impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital capacity at the hospital referral region level. Our results find the most common barrier was public health agencies lacked the capacity to electronically receive data, with 41.2% of all hospitals reporting it. We also identified 31 hospital referral regions in the top quartile of projected bed capacity needed for COVID-19 patients in which over half of hospitals in the area reported that the relevant public health agency was unable to receive electronic data. Public health agencies’ inability to receive electronic data is the most prominent hospital-reported barrier to effective syndromic surveillance. This reflects the policy commitment of investing in information technology for hospitals without a concomitant investment in IT infrastructure for state and local public health agencies.

A System-Level Intervention to Encourage Collaboration Between Juvenile Justice and Public Health Agencies to Promote HIV/STI Testing

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 337-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine S. Elkington ◽  
Anne Spaulding ◽  
Sheena Gardner ◽  
Danica Knight ◽  
Steven Belenko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
The United States ◽  
Practice Change ◽  
System Level ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
Treatment Services ◽  
Sti Testing ◽  
Health Agencies

Justice-involved youth are at high risk for HIV and STIs, and justice agencies are uniquely poised to offer HIV/STI testing. However, testing in these settings is not routine and represents a missed opportunity. This study describes a system-level implementation intervention designed to increase access to HIV/STI testing through juvenile justice (JJ) and public health agency collaboration across six counties in six states in the United States. Local change teams, active facilitation, and training were utilized to facilitate agency partnerships and development of HIV/STI practice change protocols. Five counties established health and JJ partnerships and four counties successfully implemented their protocols. Sites with HIV/STI education and testing protocols behaviorally screened 98.5% of youth and tested 41.2% of those youth; 0% were HIV+ and 43.2% had an STI. The intervention provides a feasible, scalable solution, through promoting partnerships between JJ and health agencies, to link youth to testing and treatment services.

A public health outbreak management framework applied to surges in opioid overdoses

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kieran Moore, MD, CCFP (EM), FCFP, MPH, DTM&H, FRCPC ◽  
Maximilien Boulet, BSc ◽  
Julia Lew, BSc ◽  
Nicholas Papadomanolakis-Pakis, BSocSc, MPA
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opioid Overdose ◽  
Prescription Opioids ◽  
Outbreak Management ◽  
Management Framework ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Health Agencies ◽  
Related Mortality

Objective: Over the past decade, Canada and the United States have been facing an epidemic of harms from prescription opioids. More recently, opioid-naïve individuals have been exposed to illicit opioids through adulterated combination products. This has resulted in sudden surges of opioid-related mortality. A proactive public health solution is needed to prevent further death. We propose examining these surges in opioid overdoses as outbreaks and investigating them in a similar way to an outbreak of an infectious disease. An epidemiologic investigation model for opioid overdose outbreaks, that could be modified by other public health agencies,is discussed.

scholarly journals Phylogenomic Pipeline Validation for Foodborne Pathogen Disease Surveillance

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth E. Timme ◽  
Errol Strain ◽  
Joseph D. Baugher ◽  
Steven Davis ◽  
Narjol Gonzalez-Escalona ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Foodborne Pathogen ◽  
The United States ◽  
Strain Identification ◽  
Outbreak Response ◽  
Entire Genome ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
Regulatory Decision ◽  
Health Agencies

ABSTRACT Foodborne pathogen surveillance in the United States is transitioning from strain identification using restriction digest technology (pulsed-field gel electrophoresis [PFGE]) to shotgun sequencing of the entire genome (whole-genome sequencing [WGS]). WGS requires a new suite of analysis tools, some of which have long histories in academia but are new to the field of public health and regulatory decision making. Although the general workflow is fairly standard for collecting and analyzing WGS data for disease surveillance, there are a number of differences in how the data are collected and analyzed across public health agencies, both nationally and internationally. This impedes collaborative public health efforts, so national and international efforts are underway to enable direct comparison of these different analysis methods. Ultimately, the harmonization efforts will allow the (mutually trusted and understood) production and analysis of WGS data by labs and agencies worldwide, thus improving outbreak response capabilities globally. This review provides a historical perspective on the use of WGS for pathogen tracking and summarizes the efforts underway to ensure the major steps in phylogenomic pipelines used for pathogen disease surveillance can be readily validated. The tools for doing this will ensure that the results produced are sound, reproducible, and comparable across different analytic approaches.

scholarly journals Initial epidemiological findings in the European Union following the declaration of pandemic alert level 5 due to influenza A (H1N1)

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (18) ◽  
Author(s):  
ECDC Technical Emergency Team
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Influenza A ◽  
International Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
Influenza A H1n1 ◽  
Health Agencies ◽  
Health Event ◽  
Health Regulations

The recent detection of a novel influenza A(H1N1) virus has led to the first WHO declaration of a Public Health Event of International Concern under the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005). Here we review the early epidemiological findings of confirmed cases in Mexico, the United States, Canada and EU/EFTA countries. Strengthened surveillance and continued, transparent communication across public health agencies globally will be necessary in coming months.

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