BioSense Redesign

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) BioSense 2.0 Program provides local, state, and federal partners a timely regional and national picture of trends in disease syndromes and situational awareness. BioSense is undergoing a redesign that is user-centered and based on a community-owned cloud infrastructure. This offers local health departments (LHDs) and the public health surveillance community an infrastructure they have never had before. 

NACCHO, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists CSTE, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials ASTHO, and the International Society for Disease Surveillance ISDS are partnering to manage the governance and use of this infrastructure and are recruiting states and localities to participate.

What BioSense 2.0 means for local health departments:

Through the new features provided by BioSense 2.0, local health departments can now:

• Save time and money by receiving processing storage and multiple ways to securely receive high volumes of data; 

• Share data with other states or local jurisdictions;

• Provide useful all-hazards health-related information;

• Receive all data forms and formats, including HL7 or CDA, and convert them into a SQL database;

• Utilize analytic tools, such as ESSENCE and the R statistical package in the cloud; and

• Help hospitals meet meaningful use requirements for syndromic surveillance.

NEW! BioSense 2.0 Kit 

• Syndromic Surveillance 101: Online Training Modules - this program is designed to increase knowledge and foster collaboration between public health and clinical practitioners new to syndromic surveillance. This course has been developed with funding from NACCHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

• BioSense Video - a simple explanation on how BioSense 2.0 works to provide local, state, and federal partners a timely regional and national picture of trends in disease syndromes and situation awareness.

• Boston Public Health Commission : Syndromic Surveillance Video - While syndromic surveillance systems such as BioSense 2.0  are being used locally for tracking of various infectious diseases, local health departments are beginning to think outside the box, re-thinking the use and purpose of BioSense 2.0 and tools like it. NACCHO made a trip to Boston for a visit with the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC). BPHC is a great example of an effective use of syndromic surveillance for infectious disease and even chronic disease. Their emphasis on community collaboration and leveraging of information sources is one that serves as an excellent model and has informed public policy and community engagement.
  
  

    BioSense 2.0 Grant (posted 05/11/2012)

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 »

     Public Health Situation Awareness Topics

Posts 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. 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 and PHSA Feedback Forum 13: Pre-Processing Data Management Tasks and Tools (Posted 11/02/2011).

*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!

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 »
 

• BioSense 2.0 Readiness Questionnaire - LHDs should think about how they want to participate in BioSense 2.0. The system is set up to give LHDs maximum flexibility. NACCHO''s BioSense 2.0 Readiness Questionnaire can help LHDs consider their capacity and identify next steps towards using the system. »
  

• 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. »

phinformatics@naccho.org