Infection Watch Live A realtime geospatial mapping tool

Infection Watch Live – A real-time, geospatial mapping tool of hospital triage data for public consumption Adam van Dijk MSc, Matt Mc. Pherson, Chris Sambol, Kieran M. Moore M. D. Objective § To inform health professionals and the public directly about real-time utilization of local Emergency Departments for respiratory and gastrointestinal illness to enable enhanced communication and collaboration between Public Health and health care workers. Background § Most health units do not incorporate spatial information into disease surveillance there is a growing body of knowledge that indicates such data can be useful in tracking the spread of certain diseases. § The prompt detection of respiratory and gastrointestinal related illnesses are of particular importance due to the rapid transmission and potential burden on the community. Components Fig. 2 – Enlarged map of respiratory activity for children 0 -4 years of age on Nov. 17 th subdivided by forward sortation area (postal boundary). Fig. 1 – Main landing page of Infection Watch Live showing real-time maps of illness activity. User Acceptance § Publicly accessible website branded as Infection Watch Live (IWL) which will publish local maps. The interface is a web-based GIS application developed using ESRI Arc. GIS Server. § System uses anonymized, non-identifiable, real-time, emergency department respiratory and gastrointestinal visit data from an already existing real-time Emergency Department Syndromic Surveillance (EDSS) system in Kingston, Ontario. § Expected users include: medical officers of health, nurses, physicians, hospital administrators, long-term care homes, schools, child care, employers, EMS and local citizens. § Key functionalities: § Today’s Maps – snapshot view of current activity (Fig. 1 & 2) § Advanced Maps – simple GIS interface (Fig. 3) § Illness Trends – animated historical activity § WMS – ability to consume data in external applications § Prevention and Info – enables the community § Initial user feedback came from nurses, public health professionals, community members, parents, and infection control practitioners. § Infection Watch Live was given a 3. 9 average rating by users (scale: 0 = not very useful – 5 = very useful) § Top three uses for IWL were: general community illness update, knowledge will guide me in the care of my family, knowledge will aid in infection prevention Benefits § Enables informed decision making in the community. § Provides the community with current Emergency Department utilization data for respiratory and gastrointestinal illness. § Representing data by neighborhood enables the community to react to current respiratory and gastrointestinal infections in their area. Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Neil Watson, Marie Alexander, Paul Beach, Sevaan Franks, Dillan Fernando, Niall Wallace, Justin Chenier and Ryan Backus – all of whom provided considerable help and expertise in the development of this application. Contact Information: Adam van Dijk - avandijk@kflapublichealth. ca Fig. 3 – Screen shot of the advanced maps section on Infection Watch Live which gives users more control over how they view local, illness activity maps. Next Steps § Expected public launch on January 1, 2009 § Ongoing performance monitoring and user testing § Continue engaging local stakeholders § Possible future integration of additional data sources § Expansion to other health units