Research Biological Warfare Article 2 Probiotics Basics New device helps track symptoms By GRETA LORGE October 31, 2001 Stanford Hospital is among the first in the nation to pilot BASIICS (Biothreat Active Surveillance Integrated Information and Communication System), a public health surveillance technology developed by Health Hero Network. This new technology is designed to help public health agencies monitor selected signs and symptoms of patients coming to emergency rooms. The goal is to rapidly identify syndromes or patterns of symptoms that could indicate a bioterrorist attack. The pilot program studying the technology began at Stanford Hospital last week and is expected to be launched countywide in as little as two weeks.

Biological warfare table of contents 14 anthrax smallpox 13 anthrax 12 bioweapons 11 tularemia 10 biological war 9 bioterror agents 8 biological war 7 anthrax detect 6 anthrax decont. 5 anthrax clean 4 decontaminate 3 bioterrorism 2 symptoms 1 decontaminate 1 anthrax 2 success 3 kill anthrax 4 challenges 5 questions 6 public health

"Emergency department personnel are likely to be the first to encounter unusual patterns of illnesses that could result from bioterrorism, but many of the initial symptoms are non-specific, such as fever and rash," said Eric L. Weiss, MD, assistant professor of surgery and an emergency physician at Stanford Hospital & Clinics. "Public health departments have instituted syndromic surveillance programs to look for unusual patterns of symptoms, but until now, these programs have been low-tech, slow to detect outbreaks, and have required significant staff time and paperwork."

The Health Buddy is a four-button device allowing emergency room staff to
answer questions quickly. On the receiving end, health officials
can analyze the data, looking for suspicious patterns.

Heath Hero Network, based in Mountain View, Calif., designed BASIICS, which is run through a four-button desktop device called a Health Buddy. Web-based applications are used for programming new questions into the Health Buddy and analyzing the data it transmits. When used for syndromic surveillance, hospital staff can press buttons on the device to respond to questions about patient symptoms displayed on the screen. Data is then transmitted via phone lines to an offsite secure data center. Doctors, researchers or government agencies can aggregate and analyze the data in real time using a standard Web browser.

Stanford plans to work with other Santa Clara county hospitals and local public health departments to promote using such technology to improve health surveillance and data capture, said Weiss. High-priority biological agents included in the surveillance program are those that have the potential for major public health impact, posing a risk to national security. These include anthrax, smallpox, hemmorhagic fever and plague.

"Health Hero Network is providing tools that will enable our public health officers and epidemiologists to constantly survey the medical front lines and be able to statistically analyze that data in real time," said Steve Brown, CEO of Health Hero Network. "Stanford is leading the way in helping to prove this new model for active and dynamic disease surveillance that will make our country safer and improve our public health."

Weiss added, "The urgent need for syndromic surveillance was born out of bioterrorism. It is tragic that diseases now under good public health control, or even eradicated from the planet, could again threaten a large portion of our population. We can't ensure disease outbreaks will never happen, but just that they're caught right away."

This news release is taken from the Stanford Report, www.stanford.edu.

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