The ISDS 2008 Conference will accept oral presentation, panel, and poster submissions in the following three tracks:

Track I – Surveillance Innovations
This track is focused on important and novel advances in the field of surveillance methodologies and analytical approaches. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Integrating evidence from multiple sources;
• Exploring links between genetics and disease surveillance;
• Analytical evaluation of surveillance components beyond algorithm detection performance;
• Overcoming technical and dataset barriers for research and publication; and
• Evaluation of user acceptance or user interfaces.

 

Track chair: Ben Reis

Track II –Improving Public Health Investigation and Response
This track is focused on improving the daily processes of outbreak investigation, management, and response. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Decision Support, Graphical Information Systems (GIS), cluster and event detection, pattern recognition
• Outbreak Characterization, estimating morbidity and impact, links to lab systems, multiple data sources and combined aberration detection
• Outbreak Management , public/risk communication (what to say to the public, politicians and media with Syndromic systems alerts), contact tracing and network analysis, cross jurisdictional response
• Case studies, detection and response by Public Health, situational awareness, linking response with front line health workers

 

Track chair: Kieran Moore

Track III –Applications of Methodologies to New Domains
This track is focused on applying surveillance methodologies to broader domains, including but not limited to:

• Novel approaches to communicable diseases surveillance and reporting (e.g., notifiable conditions, MRSA, nosocomial infections);
• Surveillance of acute and chronic non-infectious diseases and environmental exposures;
• Monitoring for injuries, heat related illness, crime, drug overdoses, acute poisonings, adverse reactions, and mental health;
• Veterinary surveillance of livestock and poultry, companion animals, and wild animals for zoonotic infections, including dead animal surveillance; and
• Original data sources including emergency department and healthcare data other than chief complaints, internet/news media, and poison control data.

 

Track chairs: Jeffrey Engel and Matthew Scholer