Preparedness Webinar: Disease Outbreak and Surveillance Systems-Disease Outbreak and Surveillance System

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The webinar discusses public health emergency preparedness and response with a focus on disease outbreaks and surveillance systems. Dr. Wendy Braund, a seasoned expert in the field, leads the session, highlighting the steps and importance of epidemiologic investigations and public health surveillance to control health problems.<br /><br />Key points include:<br />- <strong>Epidemiologic Investigation:</strong> It involves studying the distribution and determinants of health-related events to address health issues. Understanding an outbreak as a case of disease greater than normal in a specific area is vital. An outbreak can even be a single significant case, as highlighted by the COVID-19 situation in long-term care facilities.<br /><br />- <strong>Outbreak Investigation Steps:</strong> These include establishing an outbreak, verifying the diagnosis, defining cases, developing hypotheses, and implementing control measures to prevent further cases.<br /><br />- <strong>Surveillance Systems:</strong> Public health relies on surveillance for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting health data, leading to informed health actions. Surveillance can be passive, relying on regular reporting, or active, prompting reporters to submit data actively. Sentinel and syndromic surveillances are additional methods used for monitoring specific conditions.<br /><br />- <strong>Challenges and Modernization:</strong> Legal complexities, data system limitations, and data sharing across jurisdictions pose challenges. However, modernizing data systems and creating common data dictionaries are ongoing efforts to improve data harmonization across state and federal levels.<br /><br />Dr. Braund emphasized leveraging surveillance to guide public health policies and actions, ensuring that collected data effectively contributes to disease prevention and control. The session concluded with a Q&A on improving data systems and interoperable solutions.

Keywords

public health

emergency preparedness

disease outbreaks

surveillance systems

epidemiologic investigations

outbreak investigation

data harmonization

Dr. Wendy Braund

public health policies

data interoperability