2014.ISDS.Abstracts.Final.pdf


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ISDS 2014 Conference Abstracts

Developing a Guidance Document to Improve Public 
Health Surveillance during Disasters
Nicole Nakata*1 and Amy Wolkin2

1ORISE Research Participant at CDC, Atlanta, GA, USA; 2CDC, Atlanta, GA, USA

Objective
Our objectives are to describe and receive feedback on a disaster 

surveillance guidance document that can be used by state and local 
health departments, to fill the gaps in public health (PH) disaster 
morbidity and mortality surveillance.

Introduction
During all phases of the disaster management cycle, PH 

surveillance plays a valuable role. Surveillance provides PH 
officials and stakeholders the information they need to respond 
to disasters and take action in an appropriate and timely manner. 
Despite the fact that surveillance provides a valuable function in 
disasters, a study by the Disaster Epidemiology Subcommittee of 
the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) found 
that there are still significant differences, across states, in their use 
of disaster surveillance1. Further, there is no standardized guidance 
on implementing or modifying surveillance for a domestic disaster. 
This document seeks to fill this gap, providing guidance on planning, 
initiating, conducting, and evaluating disaster PH surveillance in the 
U.S.

Methods
We developed a draft disaster surveillance guidance document based 

on general PH surveillance best practices as well as recommendations 
for epidemiologic activity from disaster response handbooks, field 
manuals, and other government and non-governmental organization 
documents. We are also seeking input from stakeholders, including 
CSTE and ISDS. During this presentation we will present the concept 
of our draft disaster surveillance guidance document. We will give a 
brief overview on the following document sections: 1) introduction 
and purpose of disaster surveillance, 2) disaster surveillance systems 
and practices for implementing them, 3) analysis and dissemination 
of data, and 4) evaluating the effectiveness of disaster surveillance 
systems. We will also discuss useful resources such as standardized 
documents for data collection to include in the guidance.

Results
We hope to gather feedback to better understand what tools 

and resources are needed to increase disaster surveillance capacity 
and action. This will enable us to gather valuable input from our 
stakeholders, strengthen our document, and ensure we are meeting 
the needs of our state and local health departments. We also hope 
to increase awareness of and improve surveillance tools to aid in 
planning for and implementing disaster surveillance.

Conclusions
As disasters continue to occur with increasing magnitude and 

frequency, the use of this disaster surveillance guidance document 
may help state and local health departments plan for and implement 
PH disaster surveillance. Additionally, the use of standardized data 
collection forms and case definitions may aid in providing data useful 
beyond the response phase of a disaster for comparison and further 
study in the future.

Keywords
disaster surveillance; disaster management; guidance; morbidity; 
mortality

References

1. Simms E, Miller K, Stanbury M, Heumann M, Miller T. (2013) Disaster 
Surveillance Capacity in the United States: Results from a 2012 
CSTE Assessment, Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. 
Accessed 7 February 2014 from http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.
cste.org/resource/resmgr/EnvironmentalHealth/Disaster_Epi_
Baseline731KM.pdf

*Nicole Nakata
E-mail: wng9@cdc.gov    

Online Journal of Public Health Informatics * ISSN 1947-2579 * http://ojphi.org * 7(1):e43, 2015