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Public Health Informatics
Volume 27, Number 4 (2008)

This issue of the Technical Digest features articles on public health informatics and disease surveillance advances being performed at APL. Shown on the back cover are historical images of memorable public health events. The upper image is surveillance for the disease trachoma being carried out by public health inspectors on immigrants entering the United States via Ellis Island. For centuries, this form of surveillance was used to the limit the entry of persons thought to be diseased. The lower image shows a temporary hospital at Camp Funston, Kansas, during the Spanish influenza outbreak of 1918. The 1918 strain was a highly virulent form of avian influenza that was believed to have infected one-third of the world’s population. A new strain of avian influenza currently is causing high mortality in bird populations. This strain has the potential to cross over into a highly communicable human form of the virus. Human interaction with diseased bird populations, as shown on the front cover, could be the mechanism by which the new strain is formed. Surveillance and rapid identification of deadly strains have become priorities for public health professionals.

Public Health Informatics at APL: Guest Editor’s Introduction J. S. Lombardo

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics J. S. Lombardo

The Tradeoffs Driving Policy and Research Decisions in Biosurveillance H. S. Burkom, W. A. Loschen, Z. R. Mnatsakanyan, and J. S. Lombardo

Developments in the Roles, Features, and Evaluation of Alerting Algorithms for Disease Outbreak Monitoring H. S. Burkom, Y. Elbert, S. F. Magruder, A. H. Najmi, W. Peter, and M. W. Thompson

Decision Support Models for Public Health Informatics Z. R. Mnatsakanyan and J. S. Lombardo

Methods for Information Sharing to Support Health Monitoring W. A. Loschen

Public Health Surveillance for Mass Gatherings J. S. Lombardo, C. A. Sniegoski, W. A. Loschen, M. Westercamp, M. Wade, S. Dearth, and G. Zhang

A Method for Generation and Distribution of Synthetic Medical Record Data for Evaluation of Disease-Monitoring Systems J. S. Lombardo and L. J. Moniz

The Potential Utility of Electronic Disease Surveillance Systems in Resource-Poor Settings S. H. Lewis and J.-P. Chretien

The Pandemic Influenza Policy Model, a Planning Tool for Military Public Health Officials B. H. Feighner, S. P. Murphy, and J. F. Skora

Enhancing Public Health Disease Surveillance Capability: Exercising the National Capital Region Syndromic Surveillance Network R. S. Holtry

Air Quality Effects on Health-Indicator Data in Disease Outbreak Surveillance S. M. Babin, H. S. Burkom, R. S. Holtry, N. R. Tabernero, and J. O. Davies-Cole

Drinking Water Security and Public Health Disease Outbreak Surveillance S. M. Babin, H. S. Burkom, Z. R. Mnatsakanyan, L. C. Ramac-Thomas, M. W. Thompson, R. A. Wojcik, S. H. Lewis, and C. Yund

MISCELLANEA Publications, Presentations, and Conferences with Proceedings Compiled by L. M. Mercer