Posted: January 12th, 2017

What public health data would have been used to determine the need for such a program?

Imagine that you are a public health nurse, and you and your colleagues have determined that the threat of a deadly new strain of influenza indicates a need for a mass inoculation program in your community.

What public health data would have been used to determine the need for such a program? Where would you locate public health data? What data will be collected to determine the success of such a program? How might you communicate this to other communities or internationally?

Instructor’s Red Herring Alert:

Be careful this week not to chase red herrings, i.e., “are vaccines good or bad?”

Please download and read the document “Unit 3 Discussion – Syndromic Surveillance” for this discussion located in Doc Sharing. Please also review Chapter 18 of your textbook that was included in the Unit 2 reading assignments.

This discussion is about the technology used to inform healthcare professionals when and where actions need to be taken, such as influenza vaccinations, or even where to spray mosquitoes to control the spread of the West Nile or Zika Virus. This is the hidden half of the overall information technology system that is also connected to the hospital/clinic-based Electronic Medical Records systems to monitor chief complaints. Focus on the information technology that collects relevant healthcare data that makes it possible to make treatment decisions. Where does the CDC get its data? What are the RODS and NRDM systems? What is syndromic surveillance? How do these make it possible for providers to know about an influenza outbreak?