257976 Event-based surveillance using Twitter and open source tools

Monday, October 29, 2012

Frederic Grant IV, PhD, MPH, PMP , Public Health Division, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Atlanta, GA
Monitoring the events around all hazards emergencies and infectious disease surveillance are two crucial components of all public health programs. There is universal recognition that new tools are needed. Traditional systems and paper-based reporting is obsolete except in the most remote portions of the globe. Characterizations of public health events need to be based upon a real-time information value chain. For event-based, active, surveillance, new, low cost technologies can be leveraged for public health emergencies and infectious disease surveillance. Twitter, SMS texting when combined with other social media and open source tools offer a way for public health (both local and global) to keep pace with and stay ahead of events which require rapid intervention. This session illustrates how these new capabilities can be positioned for adoption, and put in use.

Learning Areas:
Communication and informatics
Protection of the public in relation to communicable diseases including prevention or control
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate Twitter features that are less known and understood. Differentiate between event-based active surveillance and passive surveillance. Compare and assess the advantages and disadvantages of social media in surveillance.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Dr. Frederic (Fred) Grant is the Chief Scientist of Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Public Health Division—which provides advanced IT and business solutions for government and commercial clients including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Institute of Health (NIH), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Any relevant financial relationships? Yes

Name of Organization Clinical/Research Area Type of relationship
Northrop Grumman N/A Employment (includes retainer)

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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