National Animal Health Surveillance System Outlook
Issue 1, September 2004
The NAHSS Outlook is an electronic communication with information about the National Animal Health Surveillance System (NAHSS) that is distributed via email to all members of Veterinary Services. Contact the National Surveillance Unit to provide comments and suggestions for future topics.
Articles in This Issue:
- Building a National Animal Health Surveillance System: Structure, Vision, and Guiding Principles
- NSU's Comprehensive National Animal Health Surveillance Inventory
- Protocol for Evaluating Animal Health Surveillance Systems
- New tablet PCs Being Field Tested
- The Value of Information: Bluetongue Surveillance - Evaluation of Historical Information
NAHSS: Structure, Vision, and Guiding Principles
The transition from the traditional model for surveillance to a new NAHSS is underway. The NAHSS will be a comprehensive, integrated, flexible, and efficient network that will collect, manage, analyze, and distribute national animal health information. To read more about the new NAHSS, go to Building a National Animal Health Surveillance System: Structure, Vision, and Guiding Principles.
Priorities
The National Animal Health Surveillance System Steering Committee, established in response to recommendations in the Safeguarding Review, recently guided the NSU in developing a strategic plan for the NAHSS. Four primary goals were identified as top priorities for establishing and maintaining NAHSS: (1) early detection and assessment of foreign animal disease, (2) early detection and assessment of emerging diseases, (3) enhance surveillance for current 'program diseases', and (4) collaborate with industry to develop surveillance for diseases significantly affecting production and marketing. The plan (currently in review) outlines specific objectives for each goal, defines actions to accomplish the objective and projects a target date for completion of each task. Look for more information on priorities and the strategic plan in future issues of Outlook .
Developments
Veterinary Services (VS) conducts animal health surveillance through a number of existing systems, most of which have effectively met established goals and the current needs of the agency and stakeholders. However, the need to integrate and coordinate animal health surveillance efforts into a world-class system is a national priority.
As a first step toward creating such a system, the NAHSS Steering Committee requested a searchable inventory of existing animal health surveillance data resources. The NSU is developing a Comprehensive Animal Health Surveillance Inventory database to provide efficient searches and summaries of animal health surveillance information for this purpose. Read more.
Following a recommendation from the Safeguarding Review, VS is striving to promote a more coordinated and synergistic approach to the surveillance and control of infectious animal diseases. To that end, NSU has developed the Protocol for Evaluation of Animal Health Surveillance Systems , which will allow VS and its partners to consistently and objectively assess the overall structure, organization, cost/benefit, and performance of surveillance activities. This protocol will be an important tool for achieving an integrated animal health surveillance system.
Technology
The slate-style PC Tablet is proving to be a useful tool for on-site data entry, replacing the need for paper forms and data entry. This hand-held PC is currently being tested in 15 field offices around the country in an effort to make BSE data collection easier, faster, and more efficient. Read more about New Tablet PCs Being Field Tested.
Issues: The Value of Information
Value of information is a way of determining whether the benefit of obtaining new or additional information is worth the cost of obtaining it. The value of information is always associated with a pending decision. If there is no decision to be made, then new information may have no value. Value of information theory is well developed in the decision sciences literature.
Using bluetongue virus surveillance information from one region of the United States, two VS epidemiologists are conducting a study that tests a new approach to assessing future surveillance requirements based on the time value of information. Read more about The Value of Information: Bluetongue Surveillance - Evaluation of Historical Information.