BioSense 2.0

Objective To familiarize public health practitioners with the BioSense 2.0 application and its use in all hazard surveillance. Introduction BioSense 2.0 protects the health of the American people by providing timely insight into the health of communities, regions, and the nation by offering a variety of features to improve data collection, standardization, storage, analysis, and collaboration. BioSense 2.0 is the result of a partnership between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the public health community to track the health and well-being of communities across the country. In 2010, the BioSense Program began a redesign effort to improve features such as centralized data mining and addressing concerns that the system could not meet its original objective to provide early warning or detect local outbreaks. Methods Using the latest technology, BioSense 2.0 integrates current health data shared by health departments from a variety of sources to provide insight on the health of communities and the country. By getting more information faster, local, state, and federal public health partners can detect and respond to more outbreaks and health events more quickly. From flu outbreaks to car accidents, BioSense 2.0 provides the critical data, information, and tools that public health officials need to better understand and address health problems at the local, state, regional, and national levels. Also, by knowing what is happening across local borders, public health professionals can anticipate potential health problems and respond effectively to protect the health of all people. The demonstration will include a basic overview of the BioSense 2.0 application and the functionality available to public health departments and their data providers. The presenter will also show an example of how BioSense 2.0 can be used in a real-world public health example. Conclusions Over the past two years much has been accomplished during the redesign effort. BioSense 2.0 was launched in November of 2011 and the collaboration between the BioSense program and the public health community has yielded an application based on a user-centered design approach and built on a platform that allows for flexible data sharing across jurisdictions and with partners. The public health community has played a critical role in designing and improving the BioSense 2.0 application and through continued collaboration the system will continue to improve. Innovative features of the BioSense 2.0 application include the use of cloud technology, a novel and flexible data sharing feature, a community driven approach, enhanced algorithms, and no cost statistical analysis tools available in the cloud. Each of these features will be discussed during the presentation.