Information Sharing During the H1N1 Outbreak

As public health officials are monitoring and reacting to the current H1N1 outbreak, having information about the spread of disease in other jurisdictions can help provide perspective, advice, and awareness of how the disease could manifest itself in their communities.  Using the InfoShare tool that was developed by the JHU/APL Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics, more than 10 states along with officials from the CDC, the Department of Defense, and the Office of Veterans Affairs were given the opportunity to share information about their current situations during the outbreak.  Each participant has been given the ability to post messages that use standardized fields used to describe their current conditions and concern levels.  The site also provides each user the opportunity to share information about methodologies, tools and results that they have been viewing during their surveillance activities.

The InfoShare tool was based on the ESSENCE Event/Communication System and designed to enable epidemiologists, regardless of the system they use, to share information with colleagues both for day-to-day events as well as in high alert situations. This site was fielded for the first time by the National Capital Region (MD, VA, DC) and the Bio Intelligence Center at the CDC during the Presidential Inaugural in January 2009.

We will present results from this tools use during the outbreak including usage, lessons learned and potential enhancements that will have been discovered.