Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Cooperative Agreement Program
Funding Initiated In 1996

FY05 Funding April 1, 2005 through March 31, 2006 - $1,910,157

Activities Proposed for FY 05

Antimicrobial Resistance, Food Safety, Hepatitis Prevention and Control, Influenza Surveillance and Response, National Electronic Disease Surveillance System, and General Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity

Key Performance Indicators

Antimicrobial Resistance

• The NYS WAIT daycare subcommittee will develop a 10 question survey, which will be distributed to participants prior to and immediately after the intervention.
• The effectiveness of the conference will be evaluated through a survey given at three different time intervals; before the conference, immediately after the conference, and six months after the conference.

Food Safety

• Attendance and participation at monthly laboratory-epidemiology meetings where topics of common interest are presented will continue.
• The typing database will be used to track the flow of isolates through the laboratory.

Hepatitis Prevention and Control

• By the end of 2005, a full analysis of all four STD/HCV Clinic Pilot Projects will be completed and reviewed.
• The radio PSAs developed for the media campaign will be launched in spring 2005. The impact of the campaign will be measured by: 1) monitoring the number of visits to the Hepatitis Web site, 2) comparing the average number of HCV tests performed before and after the campaign, and 3) monitoring the number of hepatitis A and B vaccine doses administered at local health department STD clinics.

Influenza Surveillance and Response

• Increased sentinel numbers.
• Increased percentage of sentinels reporting weekly and increased numbers of specimens submitted by sentinel providers.
• Produce and distribute summary of results on a weekly and monthly basis. Produce sentinel report every two weeks.
• Evaluate assays by comparing sensitivity, specificity, cost, and turn-around time.

National Electronic Disease Surveillance System

• Improved timeliness of reporting of disease conditions through electronic system, based on usage statistics of electronic system compared to historical records.

West Nile Virus

• Effectiveness measures include monitoring the timeliness of reporting suspect encephalitis cases, by analyzing the onset, report, and collection of specimen dates.
• Routine e-mails and conference calls provide a platform where feedback is given to the program about surveillance and other WNV activities.
• Testing of dead birds, mosquitoes and other specimens for WNV and EEE will be completed in a timely manner and results provided on a daily basis via the HIN.

General Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity

• Examine the Timeliness of Reporting- The timeliness of reporting will be measured by the interval from diagnosis date to county report date and from county report date to state report date for overall and selected diseases by county.
• Monthly/biweekly/daily number of records submitted by each laboratory will be graphed to check for duplicate submissions or missing submissions.
• Effectiveness of configuration activities includes, for example, the number of new labs, tests, test groups, observations, etc. added or modified.

Contact Information and Links

Dale L. Morse, MD, MS
Director, Office of Science and Public Health
NYS Department of Health
ESP, Corning Tower
Room 1418
Albany, NY 12237

New York State Department of Health: http://www.health.state.ny.us/