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A policy of surveillance which interferes with the fundamental right to a private life requires credible justification and a supportive evidence base. The authority for such interference should be clearly detailed in law, overseen by a transparent process and not left to the vagaries of administrative discretion. If a state surveils those it governs and claims the interference to be in the public interest, then the evidence base on which that claim stands and the operative conception of public interest should be subject to critical examination. Unfortunately, there is an inconsistency in the regulatory burden associated with access to confidential patient information for non-health-related surveillance purposes and access for health-related surveillance or research purposes. This inconsistency represents a systemic weakness to inform or challenge an evidence-based policy of non-health-related surveillance. This inconsistency is unjustified and undermines the qualities recognised to be necessary to maintain a trustworthy confidential public health service. Taking the withdrawn Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between NHS Digital and the Home Office as a worked example, this chapter demonstrates how the capacity of the law to constrain the arbitrary or unwarranted exercise of power through judicial review is not sufficient to level the playing field. The authors recommend ‘levelling up’ in procedural oversight, and adopting independent mechanisms equivalent to those adopted for establishing the operative conceptions of public interest in the context of health research to non-health-related surveillance purposes.

This case study paper aims to explore the complexities and challenges of epidemic response and public health surveillance in Native American and Indigenous American communities in the United States and find viable solutions. This paper explores these topics through the emergence and impact of the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) within the Navajo Nation in the United States using critical incident analysis and best practices.

This project is a case study paper based on a topical review of the literature. A topical review of the literature is a comprehensive exploration of the current body of knowledge within a particular research field. It is an important tool used by scholars and practitioners to further the development of existing knowledge as well as to identify potential directions for future research (Fourie, 2020). Such a paper can provide a useful insight into the various aspects of the process that the researcher may have overlooked, as well as highlighting potential areas of improvement (Gall et al., 2020). It can also provide a useful source of ideas and inspiration for the researcher as it can provide an overview of the various approaches used by other researchers in the field (Göpferich, 2009). Case study papers using a topical review of the literature have been used to help frame and inform research topics, problems and best practices for some time. They are typically used to explore a topic in greater depth and to provide an overview of the literature to improve the world of practice to provide a foundation for future comprehensive empirical research. Case study papers can provide research value by helping to identify gaps in the literature and by providing a general direction for further research. They can also be used to provide a starting point for research questions and hypotheses and to help identify potential areas of inquiry.

This study explores best practices in public health surveillance and epidemic response that can help strengthen public health infrastructure by informing the development of effective surveillance systems and emergency response plans, as well as improving data collection and analysis capabilities within Native American and Indigenous American communities in the United States that also have the option to include new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) with similar outbreaks in the future.

The literature review did not include any primary data collection, so the existing available research may have limited the findings. The scope of the study was limited to published literature, which may not have reported all relevant findings. For example, unpublished studies, field studies and industry reports may have provided additional insights not included in the literature review. This research has significant value based on the limited amount of studies on how infectious diseases can severely impact Native American communities in the United States, leading to unnecessary and preventable suffering and death. As a result, research on viable best practices is needed on the best practices in public health surveillance and epidemic response in Native American and Indigenous American communities through historical events and critical incident analysis.

Research on public health surveillance and epidemic response in Native American communities can provide insights into the challenges faced by these communities and help identify potential solutions to improve their capacity to detect, respond to and prevent infectious diseases using innovative approaches and new technologies like AI.

More research on public health surveillance and epidemic response can inform policies and interventions to improve access to healthcare for Native American populations, such as increasing availability of healthcare services, providing culturally appropriate health education and improving communication between providers and patients. By providing better public health surveillance and response capacity, research can help reduce the burden of infectious diseases in Native American communities and ultimately lead to improved public health outcomes.

The chapter critically analyzes the concepts and the practices of surveillance in modern and postmodern societies along with their consequences. We show the changes in the systems, which are used to monitor individuals, and emphasize the transition toward soft surveillance systems, probably stimulated by digital technologies. This switch from top-down control to “lateral” monitoring systems encloses surveillance practices with suggestive names like interveillance, synopticon, and dataveillance. The dark side of digital health has a bright start. According to Topol’s (2016) vision of the future, we will soon be the “consumers,” the real protagonists, of the management of our health – thanks largely to the practically endless data about our bodies, behaviors, and lifestyles we will be able to collect and analyze. We will share our health information in real time with the doctors whom we will choose based on their score in clinical rankings (here, too, quantification rears its head). Yet, this simplified version of health makes it seem that there are always some solutions, which the algorithm can supply as long as it has enough information. Moreover, in the United States, some health-insurance companies have started to offer a discount on premiums to the members who agree to collect and share self-tracking data with them. Clearly, the discount is given only to the workers who have healthy habits. At first sight, this can seem as a win-win trade-off; however, what today is presented as an individual option can easily become a requirement tomorrow.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current state of antimicrobial stewardship implementation and development within Canada at both a federal and provincial level.

Narrative review.

There have been several prominent conferences and reports in Canada regarding the development and implementation of antimicrobial stewardship programs over the past two decades. However, despite the knowledge that there is a need for standardization of programs across Canada with accurate mechanisms and infrastructure in place for implementation and evaluation of these programs, there is still a lack of consistency across the country. In addition pharmacy information regarding inpatient and outpatient antimicrobial use is not uniformly reliable. Recently, the Public Health Agency of Canada using the Pan-Canadian Public Health Network as a vehicle organized a task group to help facilitate the working relationships among the provincial, territorial and federal governments in terms of implementing antimicrobial stewardship programs. This network has the potential to enhance and standardize programs across the country.

This paper looks at Canadian policy regarding antimicrobial stewardship at a federal as well as provincial level. Historic conferences, reports and discussions are highlighted emphasizing the progressive changes over the past two decades and highlight many of the challenges that Canada continues to face.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the organization and governance of the US vaccine and immunization enterprise. It describes the major components of the US system including the various relationships between major federal government entities, stakeholders, and advisory committees that inform government policymaking at various points in the system.

The authors describe the complex interdependent network of partners that engage in a wide range of activities such as disease surveillance, research, vaccine development, regulatory licensure, practice recommendations, financing, service delivery, communications, and post-licensure monitoring.

The US system of governance is highly participatory and focuses on a transparent and open engagement, with input from a wide range of partners to inform decision-making. This collaborative framework allows many inputs to be heard and helps support the US vaccine and immunization system as it evolves to meet the continued public health needs in the USA through the optimal use of safe and effective vaccines.

This is an invited article on the US vaccine and immunization enterprise. The development and availability of vaccines in the USA has had profound impact on mortality and morbidity and public health (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). The success of this enterprise is a result of a blended public and private sector system with partnerships at the federal, state, and local levels of government to optimize the use of safe and effective vaccines. Governance structures have been established to support the interaction and decision-making among the federal and non-federal actors toward the common goal of controlling and preventing infectious diseases.

The purpose of this paper is to review stakeholder perspectives and provide a framework for improving governance in health data stewardship. Patients may wish to view their own lab results or clinical records, but others (notably academics, journalists and lawyers) tend to want scores of patient records in their search for patterns or trends. Public Health informatics capabilities are growing in scope and speed as clinical information systems, health information exchange networks and other potential database linkages enable more access to healthcare data. This change facilitates novel service improvements, but also raises new personal privacy protection issues.

This paper summarizes a panel session discussion from the 2015 Information Technology and Communication in Health biennial international conference. The perspectives of health service research, journalism, Public Health informatics and privacy protection were represented.

In North America, an expectation of personal privacy exists as a quasi-constitutional right. Individuals should be allowed to control the amount of information shared about them, and in particular the public expects that details of their personal healthcare data are protected. This is supported by laws, regulations and administrative structures; however, there are fundamental differences between the approaches taken in Canada and in the USA. In both countries, population and Public Health has wide powers to collect data and share it appropriately in order to accomplish a social good. A recent report issued by the British Columbia Information and Privacy Commissioner, and a recent story issued by the Bloomberg News service, highlight ways in which laws and regulations have not kept pace with advances in technology. Changes are needed to enable population and Public Health agencies to protect confidential personal information while still being able to comply with legitimate requests for data by researchers, policy makers and the public at large.

Similarities and differences in approach, gaps, current issues and recommendations of several countries were revealed in a conference session. Those concepts and the likelihood of ensuing legislative changes directly impact healthcare organizations’ patients and leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to study the managing of emergencies pertinent to public health which is critical to the well‐being of a society; as such, the management mechanisms employed should be of great interest and significance for research.

This paper first relies on extensive literature to describe the mechanism used in the USA from three aspects – organizational structure, management system, and logistics network. For the purpose of comparison, the Chinese version of the mechanism is presented from the same three aspects. The two management systems are then compared both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Deficient areas in Chinese public‐health management mechanism as well as challenging issues associated with supply chain design and coordination for emergency supplies in the context of large‐scale public health emergencies with low frequency but catastrophic impacts are found. Specifically, the following three important research problems are revealed from the comparative study: how to establish an efficient organizational structure that incorporates all the relevant entities in public‐health emergency management? How to establish an information system for emergency management that integrates disease surveillance, control, and prevention? How to design an efficient and cost‐effective logistics network to ensure prompt and sufficient delivery of emergency supplies?

To date, this research has been the first of its kind that compares two countries' emergency management systems in the context of public health management.

Purpose – This chapter reports on experts’ perspectives on health information technology (HIT) and how it may be used to improve health care quality and to lower health care costs.

Design/methodology/approach – Two roundtables were convened that focused on how to best use HIT to improve the quality of health care while ensuring it is accessible and affordable. Participants drew upon lessons learned in the Netherlands, the United States, and other countries.

Findings – The first roundtable focused on the use of (1) electronic health records (EHRs) by health care providers, (2) cloud computing for EHRs and health portals for consumers, and (3) data registries and networks for public health surveillance. The second roundtable highlighted (1) the rapid growth of personalized medicine, (2) the corresponding growth and sophistication of bioinformatics and analytics, (3) the increasing presence of mobile HIT, and (4) the disruptive changes in the institutional structures of biomedical research and development.

Practical implications – Governmental sponsorship of small pilot projects to solve practicable health system problems would encourage HIT innovation among key stakeholders. However, large-scale HIT solutions – developed through small pilot projects – should be pursued through public–private partnerships. At the same time, governments should speed up legislative and regulatory procedures to encourage adoption of cost-effective HIT innovations.

Social implications – Mobile HIT and social media are capable of fostering disease prevention and encouraging personal responsibility for improving or stabilizing chronic diseases.

Originality/value – Both health services researchers and policy makers should find this chapter of value since it highlights trends in HIT and addresses how health care quality may be improved while costs are contained.