Open AccessThe Perfect Storm of Information: Combining Traditional and Non-Traditional Data Sources for Public Health Situational Awareness During Hurricane Response
Author(s) -
Kelly J. Bennett,
Jennifer Olsen,
Sara Harris,
Sumiko R. Mekaru,
Alicia A. Livinski,
John S. Brownstein
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
plos currents
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.282
H-Index - 49
ISSN - 2157-3999
DOI - 10.1371/currents.dis.d2800aa4e536b9d6849e966e91488003
Subject(s) - situation awareness , public health , situational ethics , medicine , storm , agency (philosophy) , data source , data science , computer science , psychology , engineering , data mining , geography , nursing , aerospace engineering , social psychology , meteorology , philosophy , epistemology
Hurricane Isaac made landfall in southeastern Louisiana in late August 2012, resulting in extensive storm surge and inland flooding. As the lead federal agency responsible for medical and public health response and recovery coordination, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must have situational awareness to prepare for and address state and local requests for assistance following hurricanes. Both traditional and non-traditional data have been used to improve situational awareness in fields like disease surveillance and seismology. This study investigated whether non-traditional data (i.e., tweets and news reports) fill a void in traditional data reporting during hurricane response, as well as whether non-traditional data improve the timeliness for reporting identified HHS Essential Elements of Information (EEI).