2014.ISDS.Abstracts.Final.pdf


ISDS Annual Conference Proceedings 2014. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
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ISDS 2014 Conference Abstracts

Economic Modeling of Syndromic Surveillance Systems 
– A Roundtable Discussion on Association of State and
Territorial Health Official’s (ASTHO) Investment Decision 
Model

Paula Soper1, Scott Gordon1, Marcus Rennick1, Jane Blake*2, Victoria Adams2, Taylor 
Hemby2, Walter (Chip) Jansen2, Nasim Moghadam2 and KC Decker2

1Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Arlington, VA, USA; 2Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, VA, USA

Objective
Provide a demonstration of the recently developed prototype 

decision analysis model for syndromic surveillance investments. The 
roundtable will be used to discuss the model, obtain feedback on its 
usefulness, and brainstorm future uses and improvements.

Introduction
One of ASTHO’s key goals is to help its jurisdictions meet member 

needs for technical assistance, including making informed decisions 
about their syndromic surveillance options. To help them make such 
decisions, ASTHO worked with Booz Allen to create a decision 
analysis model, which factors in both a Value of Information (VOI) 
model and a Return on Investment (ROI) model. The model provides 
a dashboard of its outputs, which is a simple, easy-to-understand 
comparative view of multiple syndromic surveillance investment 
scenarios.

Description
The roundtable will include a demonstration of the decision model, 

a review of how it can be used in practice, and a facilitated discussion 
covering its usefulness, applicability in the US and internationally, 
and potential improvements for the future. The roundtable will be 
moderated by subject matter expert panel members who participated 
in the model creation, an ASTHO staff member who facilitated 
development, and the Booz Allen project manager.

Facilitators will include:
• Jane Blake (Booz Allen)
• Marcus Rennick (ASTHO)
• Bryant Karras (university of Washington)
• David Buckeridge (McGill University)

Audience Engagement
Facilitators will begin by providing a demonstration of the model, 

following by polling the audience to provide scenarios to run the 
model. The poll will include questions around parameters including 
cost, functionality, granularity, breadth, and timeliness for an as-is 
and two potential future scenarios. After the demo, the facilitators 
will review results, ask for feedback, and discuss potential gaps and 
additional uses.

Keywords
Return on Investment; Value of Information; Syndromic Surveillance; 
Decision Model; Analytics

Acknowledgments

Timothy Andrews, Booz Allen Hamilton
Atar Baer, Seattle-King County Public Health
David Buckeridge, Montreal Public Health and Quebec Public Health 
Institute
Jim Collins, Michigan Department of Community Health
Julia Gunn, Boston Public Health Commission
Bryant Karras, Washington Public Health State
Aaron Kite-Powell, Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center
Joe Lombardo, Johns Hopkins University
Vishal Pachigar, Booz Allen Hamilton

*Jane Blake

E-mail: Blake_Jane@bah.com    

Online Journal of Public Health Informatics * ISSN 1947-2579 * http://ojphi.org * (1):e185, 201