TRAIN Virginia Surveillance

Question 1

Public Health Approach

Answer 1

Surveillance
- What is the problem?

Risk Factor Identification
- What is the cause?

Intervention Evaluation
- What works?

Implementation
- How do you do it?

Question 2

Public Health Surveillance

Answer 2

• Systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health related data essential to planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice.
• Includes dissemination of this data to those responsible for prevention and control

Question 3

Public Health Surveillance Goal

Answer 3

• Provide information to be used for health action such as policies and programs.
• The state has authority of public health based on the constitution
• CDC responds when diseases has interstate implications or they are invited by the state.

Question 4

Uses of Health Surveillance

Answer 4

• Identifying patients and their access to healthcare
• Detecting health problems and changes in health behaviors
• Estimating the magnitude and scope of health problems
• Measure trends and characterize diseases
• Monitor changes in infectious and environmental agents
• Assess effectiveness of programs and control measures

Question 5

Reportable Disease

Answer 5

• State health officers can mandate the reporting of certain diseases

Question 6

Passive/Active Surveillance

Answer 6

Passive Surveillance
- Most common (simple and expensive)
- Limited by quality and incompleteness of reporting
- This is when physicians submit reports of reportable diseases

Active Surveillance
- Health agencies contact providers and seek reports
- Ensures more complete reporting
- It involves outreach to gather reports on specific diseases

Question 7

Sentinel/Syndromic Surveillance

Answer 7

Sentinel Surveillance
- Reports from health professionals who are selected to represent a geographical area

Syndromic Surveillance
- Focuses on symptoms rather than physician diagnoses or laboratory confirmed diseases

Question 8

Effective Surveillance Attributes

Answer 8

Usefulness
- Does it accomplish its objective

Data Quality
- How complete/accurate are the data fields

Timeliness
- How quickly are the reports received

Flexibility
- How quickly can the system adapt to changes

Simplicity
- How easy is the system to operate

Stability
- Does the system work well or does it break down a lot

Sensitivity (inverse with predictive value positive)
- How well does the system capture the intended cases

Predictive Value Positive
- How many of the reported cases meet the case definition

Representativeness
- How good is it at representing the entire population (not just certain groups)

Acceptability
- How easy is the systems operation

Question 9

Surveillance Process

Answer 9

Step 1 - Data Collection
- Reported diseases
- EHR
- Vital Records
- Registries (cancer, immunizations)
- Surveys

Step 2 - Data Analysis
Time - When the outbreak of disease happened
Place - Where the exposure occurred
Person - What are the demographics of people affected? Age, Sex, Race, Area they Reside

Step 3 - Data Interpretation
- How or why a health event occurred (from data gathered during analysis)

Step 4 - Data Dissemination
- How to distribute the information to those who needs it (news, bulletins, journal articles, social media)

Step 5 - Link to Action
- Monitor trends and patterns of a disease
- How to use the data for action

Question 10

WHO (World Health Organization)

Answer 10

• International surveillance system

Requires Reporting Of
- Smallpox
- Poliomyelitis
- New subtypes of influenza
- SARS