Recorded presentation

EO Alleyne, MPH, Rockland County Dept. of Health, 50 Sanatorium Road, Pomona, NY 10970, 845-364-2000, AlleyneO@co.rockland.ny.us, Edward Waltz, PhD, The Evaluation Unit, School of Public Health, University at Albany, One University Place, Rensselaer, NY 12144, Carol-Ann Watson, MS, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University at Albany, One University Place, Rensselaer, NY 12144, Sabrina-Jaar Marzouka, JD, MPH, Dutchess County Department of Health, 387 Main Street, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601, and John Zanetich, PhD, Orange County Department of Health, 124 Main Street, Goshen, NY 10924.

The events of September 11th 2000 and the anthrax attacks of 2001 substantially impacted the program activities of health departments across the United States. In addition to their traditional duties, county health departments are now charged with a host of new responsibilities, including pre-event surveillance to detect possible biological assaults on the population.

Seven county departments of health in the lower Hudson valley of New York State (NYS), the Hudson Valley Regional Health Officers’ Network (HVRHON), have partnered with the University at Albany School of Public Health (SPH) in a project to facilitate communication among counties and coordinate surveillance activities. In close collaboration with the HVRHON workgroup, SPH staff have developed a secure website based on best practices from the literature and housed on the secure NYS DOH Health Information Network.

Phase one of the project focused on providing county staff with a centralized information resource. The website contains a secure discussion forum, a streamlined communications directory of contact information, and a Geographic Information System. Phase two of the project focuses on developing pre-event surveillance systems to detect disease outbreaks irrespective of their causality. A central priority in this effort is to augment, not supplant, traditional surveillance activities

Learning Objectives:

• 1. The participant will be able to identify features of electronic networks that facilitate information sharing across jurisdictions.
• 2. The participant will be able to detail the technical and data acquisition hurdles faced by academic institutions that work with county and/or state health departments.
• 3. The participant will be able to describe the legal and policy concerns of county and state health officials when implementing syndromic surveillance systems.

Keywords: Bioterrorism, Partner Involvement

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation