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Paper Information

Title

Enhancing disease surveillance with novel data streams: challenges and opportunities.

Abstract

Novel data streams (NDS), such as web search data or social media updates, hold promise for enhancing the capabilities of public health surveillance. In this paper, we outline a conceptual framework for integrating NDS into current public health surveillance. Our approach focuses on two key questions: What are the opportunities for using NDS and what are the minimal tests of validity and utility that must be applied when using NDS? Identifying these opportunities will necessitate the involvement of public health authorities and an appreciation of the diversity of objectives and scales across agencies at different levels (local, state, national, international). We present the case that clearly articulating surveillance objectives and systematically evaluating NDS and comparing the performance of NDS to existing surveillance data and alternative NDS data is critical and has not sufficiently been addressed in many applications of NDS currently in the literature.

Journal

EPJ data science

Citation

Althouse BM, Scarpino SV, Meyers LA, Ayers JW, Bargsten M, Baumbach J, Brownstein JS, Castro L, Clapham H, Cummings DA, Del Valle S, Eubank S, Fairchild G, Finelli L, Generous N, George D, Harper DR, Hébert-Dufresne L, Johansson MA, Konty K, Lipsitch M, Milinovich G, Miller JD, Nsoesie EO, Olson DR, Paul M, Polgreen PM, Priedhorsky R, Read JM, Rodriguez-Barraquer I, Smith DJ, Stefansen C, Swerdlow DL, Thompson D, Vespignani A, Wesolowski A. (2015). Enhancing disease surveillance with novel data streams: challenges and opportunities. EPJ data science, (4)

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