scholarly journals The RHINO Community of Practice: Building a Space for Data Users and Enthusiasts in Washington State

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda D. Morse ◽  
Kevin Wickersham ◽  
Natasha Close ◽  
Elyse Kadocura ◽  
Tom E. Hulse
Keyword(s):  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Emergency Preparedness ◽  
Syndromic Surveillance ◽  
State Department ◽  
Washington State ◽  
Surveillance Data ◽  
Surveillance Program ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Washington State Department

ObjectiveTo grow and facilitate a community of syndromic surveillance data users in Washington State, improving and expanding local syndromic practice.IntroductionPrior to June 2016, there were 45 registered users of syndromic surveillance data in Washington State, with 29 (64.4%) representing 5 of Washington’s 35 local health jurisdictions and 16 (35.6%) at the state level. Of those registered users, 9 (8.8%) had logged into ESSENCE at least once in the 6 months before October 2016.In June 2016, the Washington State syndromic surveillance program began accepting Meaningful Use data and sought to increase its user base. To accomplish this, the Washington State Department of Health (WA DOH) designated a staff member to oversee outreach efforts to increase the visibility of syndromic data in the state, including the establishment of a Community of Practice.MethodsThe Washington State syndromic surveillance program—the Rapid Health Information NetwOrk (RHINO)—began the process of stakeholder engagement by delivering a needs assessment to 15 current and potential users of the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) platform. The survey assessed interest in participation in a Community of Practice for Washington State syndromic data users, the timing and format for meetings, needs for technical assistance, and topic areas of interest. RHINO then used the survey results to create a bank of topics for Community of Practice calls and develop a strategy for long-term outreach and engagement.In April of 2017, the RHINO team developed a new strategic plan and outlined metrics for evaluating growth and challenges in the program’s outreach efforts, including plans for outreach to novel disciplines like emergency preparedness. These metrics included counts of invitations for speaking engagements, ESSENCE users, onsite ESSENCE trainings and attendees at those trainings, organizations and disciplines represented in the Community of Practice, Community members, and webinars facilitated for the Community. RHINO staff compiled monthly tabulations of these metrics to track progress over the course of the year and aid in adjustments to outreach efforts as necessary.ResultsRHINO received 10 responses to the survey, with 9 respondents from local health jurisdictions and 1 from WA DOH. Respondents indicated particularly strong interest in regular webinars, a database of resources, and live trainings to support syndromic practice in their work. They also expressed concerns about the distance which would be required for in-person meetings.RHINO established that meetings would occur via webinar every other month and held 6 webinars between October 2016 and October 2017 on a broad range of topics including developing syndrome definitions, basic ESSENCE functions, using ESSENCE’s Report Manager tool, monitoring influenza-like-illness in ESSENCE, and using syndromic data for situational surveillance. In addition to the Community of Practice webinars, RHINO staff developed technical guides for both the Washington and National Surveillance Program’s (NSSP) ESSENCE platforms, a handbook for using syndromic surveillance data in Washington State, and a curriculum for onsite ESSENCE training.Between October 2016 and October 2017, RHINO offered 8 onsite ESSENCE trainings for groups of users at the Washington State Department of Health and local health jurisdictions, serving a total of 36 attendees. Over the course of the year, ESSENCE users in Washington State increased to 75, with 40 (53.3%) of them logging into the system at least once over the previous 6 months and 20 (26.7%) listed as “new users” who have not yet activated their accounts. The Community of Practice itself has 86 members representing 16 agencies and 19 disciplines.As RHINO’s profile increased and more potential users became aware of the availability of syndromic data, RHINO began receiving invitations to present for external partners. Between March 2016 and October 2017, RHINO received 8 invitations to present to audiences of potential syndromic data users. These audiences included leadership at the Washington State Department of Health and emergency preparedness and response organizations.In the next year, the program will continue offering data trainings and partner meetings to better serve the needs of both current and potential data users in Washington State. As more jurisdictions begin to have production-quality data, RHINO will continue offering onsite training. RHINO has also built a relationship with the Northwest Tribal Epidemiology Center in Portland, Oregon to begin the process of exploring data sharing with the Tribal Nations and Organizations located within Washington.ConclusionsThrough the development and implementation of a detailed outreach plan, RHINO increased the user base and profile of syndromic surveillance data in Washington State. This work was made possible through the careful construction of strong relationships with new and potential partners and the decision to diversify RHINO’s staff to include members with backgrounds beyond epidemiology.

Washington State Case Study and Guidance Developed on the Closing and Re-Opening of a Shellfishery Due to Oil Contamination

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (1) ◽  
pp. 2273-2287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Drury ◽  
Gary Shigenaka ◽  
Mark Toy
Keyword(s):  
Deep Sea ◽  
State Department ◽  
The United States ◽  
Washington State ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Contingency Plan ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Marine Diesel ◽  
Washington State Department

ABSTRACT The 128 foot F/V Deep Sea was illegally anchored on Washington state-owned aquatic lands in Whidbey Island's Penn Cove from December 24th 2011 until it sank on May 14th, 2012, following a fire aboard the vessel. Penn Cove is the home of Penn Cove Shellfish, LLC, the United States’ largest and oldest mussel farm. The Deep Sea sank within approximately 200 meters of Penn Cove LLC's mussel raft growing system with an unknown amount of oil aboard. After the vessel sank Penn Cove Shellfish, LLC, voluntarily ceased harvesting their shellfish. Not long after the Washington State Department of Health closed commercial and recreational harvest of shellfish in Penn Cove. Although efforts were made to plug the vessel's vents and seal the vessel's fuel tanks a cracked vent allowed fuel to leak from the sunken vessel, later identified as marine diesel by the Washington State Department of Ecology. Sheen was documented over the mussel rafts. Based on sensory testing the Washington State Department of Health re-opened Penn Cove's shellfish harvest in stages, with sampling plan and testing assistance from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Following response to the F/V Deep Sea all agencies involved in the shellfish closure that was as result of this incident convened to establish guidelines on the best way to run the closure and subsequent re-opening process for inclusion in the Northwest Area Contingency Plan, based off of lessons learned from the response. This was especially important since shellfishery closures due to oil spill contamination are not common in Washington State. This paper outlines those lessons learned during the F/V Deep Sea response in regards to closing and then re-opening a shellfishery in Washington State, and includes the guidelines that were established and incorporated into the Northwest Area Contingency Plan as a result.

scholarly journals Evaluation Activities from the National Syndromic Surveillance Program

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Romano ◽  
Cassandra Davis ◽  
Krystal Collier ◽  
Sara Johnston ◽  
Hana Tesfamichael ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Syndromic Surveillance ◽  
Situational Awareness ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Surveillance Data ◽  
Acceptance Testing ◽  
Surveillance Program ◽  
Local Health ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Surveillance Practice

ObjectiveThe objective of this session is to discuss syndromic surveillance evaluation activities. Panel participants will describe contexts and importance of selected evaluation and performance measurement activities in NSSP. Discussions will explore ways to strengthen evaluation in syndromic surveillance activities in the future.IntroductionSyndromic surveillance uses near-real-time Emergency Department healthcare and other data to improve situational awareness and inform activities implemented in response to public health concerns. The National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) is a collaboration among state and local health departments, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), other federal organizations, and other entities, to strengthen the means for and the practice of syndromic surveillance. NSSP thus strives to strengthen syndromic surveillance at the national and the state, and local levels through the coordinated activities of the involved partners and the development and use of advanced technologies, such as the BioSense platform. Evaluation and performance measurement are crucial to ensure that the various strategies and activities implemented to strengthen syndromic surveillance capacity and practice are effective. Evaluation activities will be discussed at this session and feedback from audience will be sought with the goal to further strengthen evaluation activities in the future.DescriptionSyndromic surveillance practice among NSSP grant recipients: findings from a telephone based survey – S. Romano This presentation will highlight the development and implementation of a survey among the NSSP grant recipients about their syndromic surveillance practice. The objectives of the survey was to develop knowledge and understanding about: a) characteristics of syndromic surveillance practice at the state and local level among jurisdictions that are NSSP grant recipients; b) challenges encountered by these jurisdictions in conducting syndromic surveillance; and c) strategies that may help address these challenges. The objectives and methods of the survey will be described in detail. The survey is expected to be implemented before the end of this year. Preliminary findings will be presented if available. Lessons learned and strategies to consider for strengthening syndromic surveillance practice will be discussed.Defining a sustainable approach to syndromic surveillance through the AZ BioSense Workgroup Charter – K. Collier, S. Johnston The Arizona BioSense Workgroup has developed a five year charter outlining the method and measures used for implementation and adoption of syndromic surveillance in Arizona. Membership consists of clinicians, IT and public health. The mission and vision help to establish a foundation for building capacity and quality of the syndromic surveillance data, improved population health and emergency response through timely and effective use of the data. Cross-cutting topics resulted in a process for assessing training needs, establishing protocols and evaluation of use cases, shared plans for situational awareness and making public health decisions. This talk will discuss the collaborative approach and how lessons learned will inform future activities.User Acceptance Testing to inform development and enhancement of the BioSense Platform – C. Davis Between June, 2016 and January, 2017, NSSP operationalized an updated BioSense Platform for conducting syndromic surveillance. The platform included ESSENCE, a software that enables analysis and visualization of syndromic surveillance data and the Access Management Center, a tool that enables jurisdictions to manage access to data. The development of and transition to the updated platform was informed by a User Acceptance Testing (UAT) that examined the functionality and usability of the platform and associated tools After webinar based orientation UAT, participants were requested to carry out specific tasks using the updated platform and tools in development. This presentation will discuss the objectives and methods of implementation of the UAT, findings from the UAT, and how these guided transition activities and the refinement of the platform applications.A quantitative and qualitative assessment of user support provided by the NSSP Service Desk – H. Tesfamichael, S. Romano A principal component of NSSP is the BioSense platform that includes health care visits related information, particularly related to emergency department visits, from across the U.S. BioSense and its associated tools, including ESSENCE, the Access Management Center, and Adminer, enable state and local health departments, and other, as appropriate, to use syndromic surveillance data to implement surveillance and assessment activities. The NSSP Service Desk provides technical support to BioSense users to assist with the use of the BioSense platform and its tools Users submit support request tickets through an online application. An analysis of information related to these tickets, including the context of the requests and their resolution status, was conducted to better understand the support needs of users and how well these were being addressed. This presentation will discuss the assessment, findings, and conclusions.How the Moderator Intends to Engage the Audience in Discussions on the TopicThe moderator will introduce the session and the panelists. The moderator will also invite questions and comments from the audience, and will facilitate the discussions. 

scholarly journals Syndromic Surveillance – Reports of Successes from the Field

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antheny Wilson ◽  
Teresa Hamby ◽  
Wei Hou ◽  
David J Swenson ◽  
Krystal Collier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Data Quality ◽  
Syndromic Surveillance ◽  
Surveillance Program ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Health Departments ◽  
Local Health Departments ◽  
Success Stories ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
State And Local

Objective: This panel will:● Discuss the importance of identifying and developing success stories● Highlight successes from state and local health departments to show how syndromic surveillance activities enhance situational awareness and address public health concerns● Encourage discussion on how to further efforts for developing and disseminating success storiesIntroduction: Syndromic surveillance uses near-real-time emergency department and other health care data for enhancing public health situational awareness and informing public health activities. In recent years, continued progress has been made in developing and strengthening syndromic surveillance activities. At the national level, syndromic surveillance activities are facilitated by the National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP), a collaboration among state and local health departments, the CDC, other federal organizations, and other organizations that enabled collection of syndromic surveillance data in a timely manner, application of advanced data monitoring and analysis techniques, and sharing of best practices. This panel will highlight the importance of success stories. Examples of successes from state and local health departments will be presented and the audience will be encouraged to provide feedback.Description: ●Success stories – acknowledging and informing syndromic surveillance practiceThis presentation will discuss the importance of success stories for NSSP focused on increasing syndromic surveillance representativeness, improving data quality, and strengthening syndromic surveillance practices among grant recipients and partners. From the beginning of the program, the identification of success stories has been an important part of the efforts to develop knowledge base that better guide syndromic surveillance program activities.●NJ and BioSense – Making The Connection The New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) uses Health Monitoring’s EpiCenter as its primary ED data for syndromic surveillance. This data is also submitted to CDC’s NSSP BioSense Platform. In April 2017, a spike in ED Visits of Interest was identified by a CDC NSSP subject matter expert and brought to the attention of NJDOH’s data analyst. Data showed an increase in “Exposure” and “School Exposure” chief complaints in two contiguous counties. News reports showed the visits resulted from a dormitory fire at a university in the area. The NSSP and NJDOH staff collaboration integrated data from both NJDOH’s EpiCenter and CDC’s BioSense Platform for further investigation. This activity shows BioSense Platform’s potential as an additional syndromic surveillance tool because of its different classifications and keyword groupings.●Evaluation and Performance Measures at the Utah Department of HealthSyndromic surveillance related evaluation activities at the Utah Department of Health requires collaboration between subject matter experts and system users from the UT-NSSP workgroup. The progress is examined quarterly and outcomes compared with the short-, mid-, and long-term outcomes listed in the NSSP logic model to ensure activities are in sync with the program’s overall goals. Throughout the budget year, a variety of tools were used to keep track of the progress. During this session, challenges and successes, lessons learned, and effective strategies will be discussed.●NSSP R tool Data Download Useful in NHThe New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (NH DHHS) uses the state-wide Automated Hospital Emergency Department Data (AHEDD) system as its primary syndromic surveillance system. A copy of this data is submitted to CDC’s NSSP BioSense Platform. In July of 2017, NH worked with the NSSP vendor, CDC staff, a jurisdictional expert, NH Division of Information Technology staff, and an external vendor to create an “R” software download in CSV format and home-based NSSP Cognos report. This allowed NH DHHS staff to compare these data to the home-based data and ultimately, it proved to be an important step in the NSSP data quality assessment process.●Achieving success to improve data quality through collaborative Community of Practice partnerships The Data Quality Committee is a forum to identify, discuss, and attempt to address syndromic surveillance data quality issues. Maintaining data quality for the chief complaint field is a priority as it can impact the creation and refinement in the successful application of a syndrome definition for one of the fundamental data elements. An issue was observed in the Arizona data in the BioSense Platform, where chief complaint was being truncated at 200 characters. Through efforts to build relationships from the committee in the Community of Practice, Arizona was able to discover the root causes for the issue, assess if it affected other jurisdictions, and work with the partners to find a feasible resolution. This talk will discuss how this collaborative approach helped improve data quality.How the Moderator Intends to Engage the Audience in Discussions on the Topic: The moderator will introduce the session and the panelists, and will invite questions and comments from the audience.

Evaluation of an American Legacy Foundation/Washington State Department of Health Media Literacy Pilot Study

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica Weintraub Austin ◽  
Bruce E. Pinkleton ◽  
Stacey J. T. Hust ◽  
Marilyn Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
State Department ◽  
Washington State ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Washington State Department

Using Large Linked Field Data Sets to Investigate Density’s Impact on the Performance of Washington State Department of Transportation Asphalt Pavements

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110061
Author(s):  
Ryan Howell ◽  
Stephen Muench ◽  
Milad Zokaei Ashtiani ◽  
James Feracor ◽  
Mark Russell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Aggregate Size ◽  
Large Data ◽  
State Department ◽  
Washington State ◽  
Maximum Aggregate Size ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Department Of Transportation ◽  
Clear Trend ◽  
Washington State Department

Large data sets of Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) pavement construction and condition data are linked together and used to investigate an implemented change in in-place density to lower specification limit (LSL) from 91% to 92%. This serves as a test case for using such large in-service data sets to create analysis value for a state DOT. Findings include: (1) WSDOT field density has remained relatively steady at 93% for over 20 years; (2) raising the density LSL to 92% will likely result in more contractor effort to achieve higher densities; (3) no clear trend links density with better pavement condition; (4) raising the density LSL will likely result in fewer problematically low densities; and (5) there is no evidence of differing pavement performance based on asphalt content, gradation, or nominal maximum aggregate size.

scholarly journals Fall Prevention Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of Community Stakeholders and Older Adults

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon S. Laing ◽  
Ilene F. Silver ◽  
Sally York ◽  
Elizabeth A. Phelan
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Fall Prevention ◽  
Medication Management ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Washington State ◽  
Telephone Surveys ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Community Stakeholders ◽  
Important Health ◽  
Washington State Department

We assessed knowledge, attitude, and provision of recommended fall prevention (FP) practices by employees of senior-serving organization and participation in FP practices by at-risk elders. The Washington State Department of Health administered structured telephone surveys to 50 employees and 101 elders in Washington State. Only 38% of employees felt “very knowledgeable” about FP, and a majority of their organizations did not regularly offer FP services. Almost half (48%) of seniors sustained a fall within the past 12 months; however, one-third perceived falling to be among their least important health concerns, and most had minimal working knowledge of proven FP practices. Seniors who perceived avoiding falls as important to their well-being were more likely to participate in practices about which they had the least knowledge (risk assessment, medication management). Increased awareness and availability of FP services might help engage older adults in FP practices and reduce the adverse effects of falls.

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