Conducting operational research during outbreaks to improve preparedness and response

Jennifer Nuzzo; Matthew P. Shearer; Diane Meyer

摘要

Objective The Outbreak Observatory (OO) aims to: ●Strengthen outbreak/epidemic preparedness and response activities through real-time, one-the-ground observations and analyses ●Identify best practices based on operational experience that are broadly applicable across outbreak response agencies ●Serve as an independent voice to advocate for policies that support preparedness and response activities based on expert assessment of the resources required to build and maintain necessary outbreak response capabilities ●Support local practitioners’ efforts to publish their experiences Sharing the firsthand experience of responders is critical for building outbreak preparedness and response capacity, and OO will serve as a dedicated mechanism to collect, analyze and disseminate this information Introduction Each significant outbreak and epidemic raises questions that must be answered in order to better inform future preparedness and response efforts, such as: ●What are the systems and resources needed to characterize an outbreak? ●What systems and resources are needed to bring an outbreak to a close? While we can anticipate these types of questions, the absence of dedicated mechanisms to record operational experiences and challenges can result in valuable, ephemeral data that are crucial for improving outbreak response not being consistently collected or analyzed. Participation in outbreaks by external experts can be instrumental in ensuring that this important operational information is documented, analyzed and shared with the broader public health community. There is a particular need for observers external to the response who can capture and analyze applied data about the operational response to outbreaks—eg, the systems and strategies involved in responding to the such events—in order to improve our understanding of best practices for detecting and responding to these events. These can then be shared so that the entire public health community can access and incorporate lessons learned into their own preparedness and response plans. External observers can also help describe the important work performed by local responders during outbreaks and advocate for necessary preparedness and response program resources. The Outbreak Observatory is currently in a pilot phase and is looking for international and US partners who may be interested in collaborating with members of our team during their next outbreak response. Methods When an outbreak occurs, OO will reach out to our partners to assess their interest in having project team member(s) travel to their location to observe the ongoing outbreak for the purpose of collaborating on a joint analysis of the response. The team member(s) would engage with local officials to identify operational challenges and best practices to better understand their perspectives and experiences. Prior to the OO team’s arrival, they will provide local responders a list of sample questions that the team is interested in exploring for the purpose of potential future written analysis, with the goal of focusing on those questions that are most relevant to both the local and broader public health communities. Once a preliminary list of study questions is developed, team members will engage with local responders to discuss their experiences. Once on location, the OO team member(s) will regularly report their findings back to the Project Director. The OO team will work with the Project Director and local partners to compose and submit the findings to a peer-reviewed journal, ensuring that local practitioners receive appropriate authorship credit. Results OO aims to fill gaps in existing health security literature by sharing the experiences of practitioners involved in outbreak responses and co-authoring peer-reviewed publications with those responders. We envision that these publications will be available more quickly than existing outbreak reports. We will disseminate our findings to pertinent policymakers, members of the broader biosecurity and public health communities and the public to ensure that important lessons reach all appropriate audiences, especially those responsible for planning and resource allocation decisions for outbreak and epidemic response. In support of this, we have created a communication platform ( www.outbreakobservatory.org ) to publish interim observations via rapid communication channels (eg, communications with policymakers, social media, blog posts, video logs). All publications will be developed in partnership with local practitioners. Conclusions The lessons learned from previous epidemic and outbreak responses are critical to informing future response efforts. However, this data is often lost in the midst of an outbreak, when responders are too busy with the situation at hand to collect and analyze operational data. Outbreak Observatory endeavors to bridge this research gap, helping to capture and analyze this data and making it available to the broader public hea

机译：目标爆发观察台（OO）旨在：●通过实时的，实地的观察和分析来加强爆发/流行病的防范和响应活动●根据广泛应用于各个爆发响应机构的操作经验来确定最佳实践●服务作为倡导独立政策的倡导者，根据专家评估建立和维持必要的疫情应对能力所需的资源，制定支持备灾和响应活动的政策●支持本地从业者发表经验的努力共享响应者的第一手经验对于建立爆发准备和响应能力，OO将用作收集，分析和传播此信息的专用机制简介每次重大爆发和流行都提出了必须回答的问题，以便更好地为未来的准备和响应工作提供信息，例如：●什么是系统和资源需要表征爆发？ ●关闭爆发需要哪些系统和资源？尽管我们可以预料到这些类型的问题，但是缺乏专门的机制来记录运营经验和挑战可能会导致有价值的临时数据，而这些数据对于改善疾病爆发反应的关键是无法持续收集或分析。外部专家参与疾病暴发有助于确保重要的运营信息得到记录，分析并与更广泛的公共卫生界共享。响应者外部特别需要观察者，他们可以捕获和分析有关疫情暴发的操作响应的应用数据（例如，响应此类事件的系统和策略），以增进我们对检测的最佳实践的理解并响应这些事件。然后可以共享这些内容，以便整个公共卫生界可以访问并将汲取的经验教训纳入自己的准备和响应计划中。外部观察员还可以帮助描述爆发期间当地响应者的重要工作，并倡导必要的准备和响应计划资源。爆发天文台目前处于试验阶段，正在寻找国际和美国合作伙伴，他们可能有兴趣在下一次爆发应对期间与我们团队的成员合作。方法发生疫情时，OO将与我们的合作伙伴联系，以评估他们对项目团队成员前往他们的地点以观察正在进行的疫情的兴趣，以便合作对响应进行联合分析。团队成员将与当地官员接触，以发现运营挑战和最佳实践，以更好地了解他们的观点和经验。在OO团队到达之前，他们将向本地响应者提供团队感兴趣的样本问题列表，以供将来进行潜在的书面分析之用，其目的是关注与本地和本地最相关的问题。更广泛的公共卫生社区。一旦制定了初步的研究问题清单，团队成员将与当地的响应者进行交流，讨论他们的经验。到位后，OO团队成员将定期将他们的发现报告给项目主管。 OO团队将与项目总监和本地合作伙伴一起撰写调查结果，并将其提交给同行评审期刊，以确保本地从业人员获得适当的作者荣誉。结果OO旨在通过分享参与暴发应对的从业人员的经验，并与这些响应者共同撰写经同行评审的出版物，来填补现有卫生安全文献中的空白。我们设想这些出版物将比现有的爆发报告更快地获得。我们将把研究结果传播给相关的政策制定者，更广泛的生物安全和公共卫生界的成员以及公众，以确保向所有适当的听众，尤其是那些负责为暴发和流行病应对做出计划和分配资源的决策者，吸取重要的教训。为此，我们创建了一个交流平台（www.outbreakobservatory.org），以通过快速交流渠道（例如，与决策者，社交媒体，博客帖子，视频日志的交流）发布临时观察结果。所有出版物将与当地从业者合作开发。结论从先前的流行病和暴发应对中汲取的经验教训对于通知未来的应对工作至关重要。但是，当响应者忙于处理当前情况以至于无法收集和分析操作数据时，这些数据通常会在爆发期间丢失。爆发天文台努力弥合这一研究差距，帮助捕获和分析这些数据，并将其提供给更广泛的公众健康

Conducting operational research during outbreaks to improve preparedness and response

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