Environmental Informatics and OneHealth: important venues to consider

1. InForMID -Tufts Initiative for the Forecasting and Modeling of Infectious Diseases Environmental Informatics and OneHealth:important venues to consider Elena N. Naumova Tufts University School of Engineering, Medford MA USA TELI May 21, 2013

2. Important venues to consider • New disciplines: • One Health, Environmental Informatics • New Information technologies: • GIS, Remote Sensing • New environmental challenges: • Climate change, complex emergencies • Inter-disciplinarity is a common theme in • research, practice, decision making

3. Global (One)Health Surveillance Serves one of the most essential functions in global health Provides real-time information about potential outbreaks and epidemics of (re)emerging infections at the global scale Initiates as a loose framework of formal, informal ad ad-hoc arrangements characterized as a network of networks to disseminate relevant information Transformed in a last decade by a more systematic mechanisms to investigate, assess and declare when and where there is a new public health emergency of international concerns is emerging for dissemination information

4. Measures of (One)Health • Specificity/Sensitivity • Population Coverage • The main issues are • Completeness • Compatibility • Convertibility • Accessibility Epidemiological Cohorts Hospitalization Records Regional Registries Surveillance Systems Mortality Databases Time Series Analysis Meta-Analysis GIS-driven dynamic mapping

5. Data Dilemma: too little or too much? • … no published data… • … very little is known… • … sparse evidence… Convert data into useful information! … data explosion… … massive databases… … data mining… Supercomputing and visual analytics

6. Processing & Visualization Storage Smart Devises Remote Sensing Milestones of evidence-based research Smart Sensors • Data Presentation • Comprehension Sharing • Data Analysis • Complexity • Interpretability • Data Validation • Completeness Quality Milestones of evidence-based tracking of health • Data Collection • Availability Access

7. Environmental informatics (EI) • EI provides methodology for information processing and the development of communication infrastructure aiming at data, information and knowledge integration, the application of computational intelligence to environmental data. • EI is the "research and system development focusing on the environmental sciences relating to the creation, collection, storage, processing, modeling, interpretation, display and dissemination of data and information.”

8. When it rains, it pours "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." - Joseph Kennedy

9. Complex Emergencies • Scarce resources • Limited monitoring • Difficult terrain Immediate Response EVENT Delayed Responses

10. Remote Sensing for Disaster Management

11. Pretoria, Malawi Land cover NDVI – 8 km resolution

12. Blantyre, Malawi NDVI NDVI September

13. Blantyre, Malawi NDVI NDVI September October

14. Blantyre, Malawi NDVI NDVI September October November

15. Blantyre, Malawi NDVI NDVI September October November December

16. Blantyre, Malawi NDVI NDVI September October November December January

17. Blantyre, Malawi NDVI NDVI September October November December January February

18. Blantyre, Malawi NDVI NDVI September October November December January February March

19. Blantyre, Malawi NDVI NDVI September October November December January February March April

20. Blantyre, Malawi NDVI NDVI September October November December January February March April May

21. Blantyre, Malawi NDVI NDVI September October November December January February March April May June

22. Blantyre, Malawi NDVI NDVI September October November December January February March April May June July

23. Blantyre, Malawi NDVI NDVI September October November December January February August March April May June July

24. Monthly data Mean Pretoria, South Africa

25. Research Collaborations • Mathematics • Biostatistics • Bioinformatics Epidemiology Public Health OneHealth EcoHealth GIS Dynamic Mapping Remote Sensing Visualization Devices Sensors Experimental Platforms

26. What we can do better? • Plan for better data collection in complex emergencies • Focus on vulnerable populations • Use novel information technologies • Remote Sensing • Crowdsourcing • Visual Analytics • Develop and implement GIS-enabled (one)health databases • Enforce ethical standards and policies for data gathering and sharing • Engage citizen scientists • Train students in interdisciplinary and project-oriented settings "It always seems impossible until it's done." Nelson Mandela

28. EI Course Objectives • Learn how to: • formulate basic research hypotheses • justify selected research hypotheses with the proper evidence and support from the literature • prepare data for analyses • perform statistical/analytical techniques • Understand: • the principles of research ethics • the main concepts of research design • the main concepts of critical review of results interpretation • Competent in the use of standard analytical tools (e.g., software programs) to test basic statistical hypotheses and visualize results • Obtain knowledge of and articulate underlying principles of data analysis with respect to the environment and health

29. Projects • Focus on Research and Environmental Health Applications (Internships in WHO, UN, UNESCO, Summer Scholars, TIE/WSSS funding support) • Semester-long Project • develop a research hypothesis, • perform an appropriate literature review, • conduct secondary data analysis, • prepare visual aids, • synthesize results, • discuss findings.

30. MCM 589: Project Management and Communication • This course covers: • communication skills that will enhance collaboration and dissemination of information to stakeholders (the public, government agencies, etc.) as well as the practical skills needed to initiate, fund and manage research projects; • strategies for funding opportunities searching and the main elements of proposals preparation; • styles and strategies for publication in lay journals, delivery of legislative briefings, and use of other media.

31. Learning Objectives: • • Formulate and propose strategies for managing a team of experts and skilled staff to address a conservation medicine research question or develop a health application/program in a particular setting. • • Develop strategies for seeking government, foundation and corporate funding for conservation projects. • • Write competitive grant proposals for both government and non-governmental funding targets, including configuring realistic budgets and corresponding budget justifications and developing a plan for dissemination of results. • • Develop effective communication materials, including lay literature and methods of communicating with non-scientific audiences. • • Understand behavior change communication and develop an effective campaign designed to address a conservation medicine strategy, prevention program, or response.

32. Group/Individual Activities • Project development topics include • • Team building • “Elevator Pitch” • Self-assessment • • Professional and research ethics • Data Use Agreement reviews • IRB (CITI) training • • Seeking funders • • Grant writing • Peer-review and assessment • • Project development and management • • Program and policy evaluation

33. Sessions on the following topics that support the case study final project: • • Collaborative writing • • Data visualization • • Team management and leadership. • Grading: • Final grades for the course are based on • oral class participation (20%), • writing exercises (60%), • final presentation (20%). • Delivery: a complete portfolio

34. Acknowledgements • National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases • National Institute of Environmental • Health Sciences, R01 ES013171 • (PI - Dr. Elena N. Naumova, Tufts University, Boston USA) • Tufts University Master in Conservation Medicine Program • (Students and faculty: Drs. Gretchen Kaufman, Joanne Lindenmayer, Alison Robbins) TIE TELI 2008, 2012, 2013