The Applied Physics
Laboratory has received a $4 million three-year grant
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to
establish a Center for Excellence in Public Health
Informatics. APL's center will be one of five funded by CDC
to conduct research leading to major scientific advances in
public health informatics.
Public health informatics is a relatively new field
that refers to the science that deals with health
information, its structure, acquisition and use to promote
health. In recent years, APL has become a leader in
developing computer applications to automate several
aspects of disease surveillance.
In 1998, the Special Applications Branch of the Lab's
National Security Technology Department began work on an
automated disease surveillance system, now known as
Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification
of Community-based Epidemics, or ESSENCE, that compiles
data such as emergency room visits and over-the-counter
drug sales to look for early recognition of patterns that
could indicate the outbreak of a disease. ESSENCE was
widely used in the Washington, D.C., area immediately
following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Currently
the system is being used in the National Capitol Region,
composed of the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia
and the seven counties surrounding D.C.
Joe Lombardo, the director of the center, said the CDC
grant will allow APL to focus its expertise in basic
research for public health informatics. "We've done a great
deal of application work," he said, "but it's important to
be able to step back once in a while to look at areas where
major enhancements may be possible in the next few years."
Many regions across the nation have set up advanced
disease surveillance systems in response to threats of
bioterrorism, and part of the new center's efforts will be
to look at ways to expand and connect those systems into
networks so they can work synergistically. "We envision a
public health network where information can be exchanged
across the country and among regional partners to improve
our surveillance capacity," Lombardo said.
Finally, the center will look into ways to improve the
way information is presented to the epidemiologists who use
these systems. "The Lab has done a great deal of work in
improving visualization tools, so we want to leverage that
expertise," Lombardo said. "When you start expanding
networks across borders, it's important to be able to
transmit information electronically in a consistent manner
so that health departments can work together to rapidly
make decisions."
The center has already received an additional $1.5
million grant for a three-year project titled "BioSense
Initiative to Improve Early Outbreak Detection." Under this
grant, researchers from APL and the University of Maryland,
led by principal investigator Howard Burkom of APL, will
work with CDC personnel to advance technologies associated
with near real-time reporting, automated outbreak
identification and analytics.
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