Computation Epidemiology

iScrub is in the iTunes App Store

Chris H. — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:36:35 +0000

iScrub, an iPod Touch and iPhone application developed by the University of Iowa Computational Epidemiology group that allows infection control professionals to record hand-hygiene observations more efficiently, is now available in the iTunes App Store.

Monitoring Swine Flu using Twitter

Chris H. — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:03:45 +0000

The University of Iowa computational epidemiology group CompEpi has posted a web applet for tracking twitter conversations related to swine flu and drugs related to swine flu. See where people are talking about swine flu.

Swine Influenza Prediction Markets

Chris H. — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:52:16 +0000

The University of Iowa Electronic Health Markets has opened a market for experts to trade on the likelihood of the disease spreading in the United states. If an individual believes that a certain outcome is likely, he or she buys shares in that outcome. When the market closes, there is a payout to those with shares in the determined outcome.

Thus, the market price is a proxy for the likelihood of an outcome occurring. As of midnight on April 30, the current prediction is that there's a 79% chance of the swine flu outbreak still being active after July 31. Traders believe there's a 42% chance between 41 and 50 states will see confirmed cases, 50% that the mortality rate will be 1 to 2.5% by July 31, and a 68% chance 1101 or more cases will be confirmed by the end of July.

A Difference between Healthcare in the UK and the USA

Chris H. — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:42:12 +0000

The BBC published a story today on infection control in England. It is interesting to see them single out hospitals where hospital acquired infection rates are high. It seems like there would be a lot of resistance to something like this in the United States, and indeed at a meeting of The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology in America I heard infection control professionals complaining that the extra level of work required for reporting all hospital acquired infections was causing veterans to quit and be replaced by inexperienced ICP staff. It was also pointed out that hospital administrators were over reacting sometimes when seeing these numbers continually for the first time.

The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2009

Chris H. — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:05:11 +0000

I recently got back from an infectious disease conference (SHEA) in San Diego where my research group presented work on a low-cost non-RFID based method for monitoring hand-washing in hospitals. It's been estimated that up to one-third of hospital acquired infections in the United States could be prevented with better hand hygiene. It's also been shown that feeding hand-washing rates back to staff results in the rates improving.