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.
COVID-19 and other public health threats have contributed to more than six million deaths globally in a short amount of time. As such, there is an urgent need to respond to these threats in a way that improves global health and wellbeing. Written by a diverse group of exemplary scientists, the thirteen chapters in this volume provide unique, comprehensive, and science-based approaches to respond to macro-structural, human process, and micro issues affecting public health threats.
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.
A NEW AND ESSENTIAL RESOURCE FOR THE PRACTICE OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND PUBLIC HEALTH The CDC Field Epidemiology Manual is a definitive guide to investigating acute public health events on the ground and in real time. Assembled and written by experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as other leading public health agencies, it offers current and field-tested guidance for every stage of an outbreak investigation -- from identification to intervention and other core considerations along the way. Modeled after Michael Gregg's seminal book Field Epidemiology, this CDC manual ushers investigators through the core elements of field work, including many of the challenges inherent to outbreaks: working with multiple state and federal agencies or multinational organizations; legal considerations; and effective utilization of an incident-management approach. Additional coverage includes: � Updated guidance for new tools in field investigations, including the latest technologies for data collection and incorporating data from geographic information systems (GIS) � Tips for investigations in unique settings, including healthcare and community-congregate sites � Advice for responding to different types of outbreaks, including acute enteric disease; suspected biologic or toxic agents; and outbreaks of violence, suicide, and other forms of injury For the ever-changing public health landscape, The CDC Field Epidemiology Manual offers a new, authoritative resource for effective outbreak response to acute and emerging threats. *** Oxford University Press will donate a portion of the proceeds from this book to the CDC Foundation, an independent nonprofit and the sole entity created by Congress to mobilize philanthropic and private-sector resources to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's critical health protection work. To learn more about the CDC Foundation, visit www.cdcfoundation.org.
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 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.
This book presents a decade of advances in the psychological, biological and social responses to disasters, helping medics and leaders prepare and react.
This book presents a compilation of the most recent implementation of artificial intelligence methods for solving different problems generated by the COVID-19. The problems addressed came from different fields and not only from medicine. The information contained in the book explores different areas of machine and deep learning, advanced image processing, computational intelligence, IoT, robotics and automation, optimization, mathematical modeling, neural networks, information technology, big data, data processing, data mining, and likewise. Moreover, the chapters include the theory and methodologies used to provide an overview of applying these tools to the useful contribution to help to face the emerging disaster. The book is primarily intended for researchers, decision makers, practitioners, and readers interested in these subject matters. The book is useful also as rich case studies and project proposals for postgraduate courses in those specializations.
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