Pittsburgh, PA, May 4, 2009 — Health Monitoring Systems (HMS) is a Pittsburgh-based company pioneering a new field in the healthcare information technology arena: Community Health Surveillance. HMS is currently supporting state and local public health departments as they work to monitor the H1NI Flu (Swine Flu). HMS has been working continuously to help track […]
The Ohio Department of Health and the Indiana State Department of Health enhanced their individual syndromic efforts through cross-border sharing of emergency department (ED) chief complaint data. A poster of this project is available here.
The Utah Department of Health documented a single epidemic of cryptosporidiosis in Utah during 2007. Seven hundred eleven laboratory-confirmed cases were reported in Salt Lake County, Utah from July 27 through December 18. Illness onset date was available for 86% (611 of 711) of patients and ranged from May 30 through November 11. Approximately 32% […]
Early detection is a function of many biosurveillance systems that strives to decrease the time between the onset of an event (e.g. infectious disease epidemic) and discovery. Situational awareness is another function that provides for timely information that public health can use to assess status of events (e.g. outbreak progression or general community health). With […]
Insects and arachnids are vectors for a variety of diseases of public health importance. In areas where these diseases are endemic, some health departments routinely monitor these populations and apply control measures as necessary. In other areas, monitoring is infeasible or unnecessary under normal conditions, but could be of value under extraordinary circumstances such as […]
Animals continue to be recognized as a potential source of surveillance data for detecting emerging infectious diseases, bioterrorism preparedness, pandemic influenza preparedness, and detection of other zoonotic diseases. Dr. Loren Shaffer explores this issue in a paper published by Advances in Disease Surveillance and can be accessed from their website.
Insects and arachnids are vectors for many diseases that have public health significance. In areas where these diseases are endemic, health departments routinely monitor these populations and apply control measures as needed. In other regions, monitoring is usually infeasible or unnecessary, but under extraordinary circumstances, such as widespread flooding, it could provide valuable information for […]
By: Loren E. Shaffer, MPH, PhD SYNOPSISWhile the majority of potential bioweapons and emerging infectious diseases are associated with disease-causing agents that are zoonotic, detection of a zoonotic disease outbreak continues to rely on the identification of human cases. Existing disease surveillance in animals is inadequate to detect outbreaks of zoonoses early. Development of outbreak […]
Pittsburgh, PA, August 22, 2008 — Health Monitoring Systems (HMS) announced an agreement with the Nevada State Health Division that will extend the coverage of the EpiCenter surveillance service to include the 2.5 million citizens of Nevada. The adoption of EpiCenter by Nevada brings the population covered by the service across the United States to […]
Pittsburgh, PA, July 24, 2008 — Health Monitoring Systems (HMS) said today that Karen S. Dockrell has been appointed vice president, sales.