BioSense Redesign

Since 2003, BioSense has been the federal solution for syndromic surveillance and has strived to provide local, state, and federal partners a timely regional and national picture of trends in disease syndromes and situational awareness.  However, the BioSense program is now undergoing a user centered redesign that is hosted in a cloud environment and governed by the public health practice community at large.  This new design offers the public health surveillance community an infrastructure never achieved before. It will also have multiple functions including: Meaningful Use HL7 message data capture, analytic tools like BioSense 2.0 and ESSENCE, ability to share data across jurisdictions, and much more (see FAQ here).  NACCHO, CSTE, ASTHO, and ISDS are partnering to manage the governance and use of this infrastructure and are recruiting states and localities to participate. The application launched November 15, 2011, and continues to require input from the community as it develops.

What BioSense 2.0 means for local health departments:

Through the tools provided by BioSense 2.0, local health departments can now help their hospitals meet meaningful use requirements for syndromic surveillance.  LHDs also have a space in the cloud completely under their control that allows them to perform syndromic surveillance.  Localities should work closely with their state to determine how they will best use the tools now available.  However in areas where the states do not wish to support syndromic surveillance, BioSense 2.0 offers local health departments an infrastructure to support their own syndromic surveillance activities.  In addition, local health departments can now share data with other states or local jurisdictions, which will enhance regional situational awareness.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) BioSense Program grant provides LHDs with support to implement public health situation awareness and syndromic surveillance utilizing BioSense 2.0. The funding opportunity is available to LHDs interested in surveillance capacity to enhance regional and national all-hazards public health situation awareness. For more information visit »

The fourteenth post for the Public Health Situation Awareness topic has launched. Please take a moment to visit the BioSense Redesign site and answer the new questions to help the BioSense development team identify commonly used software, statistical analysis, and commands for routine surveillance. The CDC will use your feedback to better understand how to tailor the new BioSense application. Your feedback is valuable to the redesign of the BioSense system and Program.

Please visit the BioSense Redesign Collaboration website to access questions at the Requirements Gathering Work Center or link directly to the questions at PHSA Feedback Forum 14: Statistical Analysis, Tools and Packages.

*New questions are posted for comment on a weekly to biweekly basis.  Check back often for updates and summaries of feedback posted by stakeholders.

    BioSense 2.0 is Open for Business!

BioSense 2.0 is finally here! For more info on how to join, please e-mail info@biosen.se. Click here for ongoing BioSense 2.0 developments and news updates. Twenty-first century surveillance is here!

    Public Health Situation Awareness Topic #13

The thirteenth post for the Public Health Situation Awareness topic has launched. Please take a moment to visit the BioSense Redesign site and answer the new questions to help the BioSense development team better understand the pre-processing data management tasks performed on your raw syndromic surveillance data. The CDC will use your feedback to better understand how to tailor the new BioSense application. Your feedback is valuable to the redesign of the BioSense system and program.

1. HHS has approved lowering the security rating of the BioSense system from the original triple-high to moderate, a more practical public health surveillance system rating.  It is a little known fact that this rating was one of the main reasons data could not be shared back with the public health community in BioSense 1.0.  The BioSense Redesign team has been working at the highest levels of government for the past two years in order to get this changed.  As of September 22, 2011, the rating was lowered and that means BioSense 2.0 can be loaded with historic data from BioSense 1.0 pending further internal procedures at CDC.  This is a very important step towards creating the more community owned BioSense 2.0 environment.

2. Internal CDC Governance has approved the decommissioning of BioSense 1.0 by April 2012.  This will save approximately five million dollars in IT overhead costs, which is money that can be distributed back out to state and local health jurisdictions pending any cuts in the new budget.
   

    BioSense 2.0: Constructing a 21st Century Surveillance System—Behind the Scenes   

These are exciting times! The BioSense 2.0 November 15 rollout is just around the corner, and the Redesign team is working diligently to construct an environment with data, information, and tools to better prepare for and coordinate responses to safeguard and improve the health of the nation. And though the road to BioSense 2.0 has been paved with numerous tasks and to-dos, we thought it would be great to step away from the shop and share a bit about our current activities. Read more »
 

• Archived Webinar- BioSense 2.0 Pilot Site and Advanced Practice Center - Tarrant County Health Department, TX, May 15, 2012 [PPT Slides]
  

During this webinar Tarrant County presented on the implementation of the new platform. They shared their learned lessons about both the technical and practical aspects of operating syndromic surveillance in the cloud and using the new BioSense 2.0 platform. »

• Archived Webinar- Valuable Uses for Emergency Department Data in Public Health: Examples from Florida and Boston, Oct. 11

  During this webinar, state and local health officials and epidemiologists will reveal what it takes to perform syndromic surveillance as well as provide some exciting examples of the value syndromic surveillance can provide. »

• Syndromic Surveillance 101 Online Course: An Introduction to Syndromic Surveillance for Clinicians and Public Health Practitioners

  ISDS, in partnership with the Tufts University School of Medicine and Tufts Health Care Institute, created SS101. The development of these online modules and their accreditation was funded by NACCHO. »

• Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, BioSense 2.0 Page »

   Vanessa Holley, MPH 

   Program Analyst

   202.507.4239

   vholley@naccho.org