Practicum Site Analysis

My practicum site Department of Health, Vermont has an epidemiology nurse who actively takes part in biosurveillance. Biosurveillance is the process of gathering, integrating, interpreting, and communicating information related to disease activity. Health informatics refers to the resources and tools used to store, retrieve and use health related information. Health informatics makes biosurveillance possible in real time as public health agencies must respond to threats in a short time. Health informatics is useful in creating situational awareness and effectively coordinate containment measures. Vermont Department of Health publishes a list of reportable diseases. These diseases include many bacterial and viral diseases. Some diseases like Small pox and meningococcal diseases should be immediately notified. The list of these diseases is available at my practicum site and also available on the state website. Various health care workers like healthcare providers, nurses, school health officials and administrators of long-term care facilities
The NBS, developed by CDC helps to track multiple and tack diseases in multiple locations. Gathering such data is useful in identifying a new disease outbreak. NBS reduces the reporting time of communicable diseases. NBS improves communication among local, state and public health officials. NBS makes it easy for state and federal agencies to provide local health departments with resources they need. As NBS is a centralized system, it can identify and eliminate any cases that are duplicated. NBS standardizes the data and evaluates the effectiveness of prevention programs. NBS provides local public health departments with tools for geographical analysis through geocoding the cases. Geocoding gives spatial orientation of the diseases and to recognize potential environmental contamination. NBS makes the follow up and contact tracing