National Biosurveillance Integration Center Briefing for the National Governors Association Steve Bennett, Ph.D. Director, National Biosurveillance Integration Center Office of Health Affairs Department of Homeland Security April 27, 2012
Agenda 1 Why national biosurveillance integration? 2 How does NBIC do biosurveillance integration? 3 What is the NBIC operations impact? 4 Biosurveillance Innovation: NCB-P Pilot 2
Why National Biosurveillance Integration? Acute, emergent biological events can be caused by Biological agents Chemical agents Radiological agents Environmental conditions Impacting Human health Animal health Agriculture Environment, ecology, and water 3
National Biosurveillance Integration Center National Biosurveillance Integration Center (NBIC) Chartered by the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-53) Housed in the Department of Homeland Security Coordinates comprehensive national biosurveillance and situational awareness Collaborates with the interagency community to acquire, integrate, analyze, and disseminate information pertaining to emerging biological events and their impact on US interests in order to: Provide indications and warnings to NBIS partners Provide situation awareness to NBIS partners NBIC Mission [The mission is] to disseminate alerts and other information to Member Agencies and, in coordination with (and where possible through) Member Agencies, to agencies of State, local, and tribal governments, as appropriate, to enhance the ability of such agencies to respond to a biological event of national concern P.L. 110-53 4
National Biosurveillance Integration System National Biosurveillance Integration System (NBIS) Chartered by the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-53) Interagency community providing national biosurveillance and situational awareness Provides the collective framework to acquire, integrate, analyze, and disseminate information pertaining to emerging biological events and their impact on US interests NBIS Mission National Biosurveillance Integration System (NBIS) enhances the identification, location and tracking of biological events potentially impacting homeland security by uniquely integrating information and data and leveraging interagency communications and relationships. NBIS supports prevention and mitigation of such events by providing timely notifications and ongoing situational awareness to enhance response of government agencies. (June 30, 2010) 5
NBIS Members 6
Agenda 1 Why national biosurveillance integration? 2 How does NBIC do biosurveillance integration? 3 What is the NBIC operations impact? 4 Biosurveillance Innovation: NCB-P Pilot 7
NBIC Vision and Mission 8
NBIC Interagency Communications Routine information gathering processes and reporting Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) Biosurveillance Common Operating Picture (BCOP) Federal State / local Urgent Communications (NBIS Protocol) 9
Biosurveillance Cross-Domain Integration and Analysis Tools + Analysis = Biosurveillance Reporting BCON 10
Biosurveillance Common Operating Network (BCON) System Status Overview 6,749,086 maintained published content factors: Includes: Social Media =4,388,794 Open Source =2,360,292 24,000+ Sources 16k+ Articles per day 2 Minute acquisition frequency Over 30 integrated subsystems 8k+ taxonomy terms 6k+ search terms Capabilities National and Worldwide Situational Awareness Natural Language Processing GIST reporting Geo-Temporal Visualization Documented Information categorization tracking and scoring by public health domain according to PL110-53 Graphical Analytics and Data Visualization Real-time Crowdsourcing / Social Networking Information Sharing Automatic Infodoc generation Intelligent Event Detection Biosurveillance Statistical Index Reporting Capability Event tracking and SME collaboration capability Independent taxonomy management
Biosurveillance Common Operating Picture (BCOP) BCOP Federal Information tailored for a specific event Default references set by administrator BCOP State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Events Statistics related to the event FDA, USDA, and CDC information related to the event Weather Information Timeline showing Events/Reports Full-feature mapping with event markers Events/Reports filtering Webinar 12 FOUO 12 12
State, Local, Tribal, Territorial (SLTT) Biosurveillance Common Operating Picture Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) State, Local, Tribal, Territorial Biosurveillance Common Operating Picture To request SLTT BCOP access, please email: NBIC-OHA-SLTTBCOP@hq.dhs.gov 13
Working Together: Supporting State and Local Partners Collaborated with the Association of State & Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) gathered feedback on use of the state and local BCOP Survey Findings: 63% found the information provided assisted in their ability to carry out their job responsibilities 79% believe the Biosurveillance Common Operating Picture (BCOP) allowed for easy navigation Respondents shared information with Fusion Centers and public health officials and utilized information for briefings and improved general situational awareness of events More than half of surveyed state and local health officials found NBIC s BCOP both useful and easy to use 14
Enduring Collaboration with State and Local Partners Working with CDC to partner with ASTHO for health security activities and working to finalize relationship with the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) Activities include: Coordination with ASTHO and NACCHO to identify existing activities that support NBIC pilots Utilization of NACCHO s 1700+ local public health preparedness officials for expansion of BCOP use Coordination with ASTHO s preparedness & policy committees 15
NBIS Protocol Activation Mechanism to bring federal NBIS partners together on a shortnotice teleconference to share information on a potentially significant biological event Communicate event characterization information available across the federal government and identify event-specific information or coordination needs Activation based on threshold criteria established by the NBIS partners at request of any federal NBIS partner. 16
NBIC Report Distribution Federal State/Local DHS Operations BioWatch BCOP 1 R&M List 2 BCOP R&M List R&M List R&M List Users 579 577 168 74 150 2,500 Agencies 17 17 ------- ------- DHS only ------- States ------- ------- 50 50 ------- 50 Biosurveillance Common Operating Network (BCON) RSS feeds: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Collaborative for Bio-Preparedness (NCB-Prepared) 1 Biosurveillance Common Operating Picture 2 Reporting and Monitoring List 17
NBIC Products Federal State/Local Users Agencies Users States BCOP 1 579 17 168 50 Monitoring List 577 17 74 50 Weekly Call 192 17 ------- ------- NBIS Protocol 164 15 ------- ------- BCON-X 46 5 ------- ------- RSS Feeds 2 No registration required 1 Biosurveillance Common Operating Picture 2 Biosurveillance Common Operating Network (BCON) RSS feeds: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Collaborative for Bio-Preparedness (NCB-Prepared) 18
Agenda 1 Why national biosurveillance integration? 2 How does NBIC do biosurveillance integration? 3 What is the NBIC operations impact? 4 Biosurveillance Innovation: NCB-P Pilot 19
Protecting the Nation s Food Supply Recognized unusual E. coli O104:H4 outbreak with high virulence Key Homeland Security questions: Is the event deliberate or natural? Are there risks to the US through food importation? Are US citizens & interests abroad affected? 20
Protecting the Nation s Food Supply Brought agency partners together with CDC Subject Matter Experts Activation of NBIS Protocol to quickly organize teleconference with appropriate interagency representation 61 individuals representing 13 federal departments/agencies participated No indication outbreak was unnatural Importation of suspect food assessed Information sharing broadened across federal government Messaging to US citizens abroad coordinated NSS and DHS Secretary kept informed of USG actions Germany sees spike in E. coli-related illness First NBIS discussion of this issue on weekly interagency call Three deaths, over 300 cases with severe complications NBIS Protocol Activation Germany declares end of outbreak May 22, 2011 May 25, 2011 May 31, 2011 June 02, 2011 July 28, 2011 21
Protecting US Agriculture Unexplained illness and abortion observed in cattle in Germany Novel Schmallenberg virus identified Believed transmitted by biting midges Spreading across Europe Key Homeland Security questions: Will it impact the US agricultural economy? What are the risks to the US from importation? Are we prepared to respond/mitigate consequences if necessary?. Coordinating communication Department of State awareness and monitoring in Europe Germplasm importation restriction (USDA & CBP) USDA Pathways Assessment in process Responding to White House inquires 22
Working Together: Increased Stakeholder Engagement FEMA Emergency Notification System (ENS) exercise of NBIS Protocol Activation (March 13, 2012) ENS is an online system developed by FEMA used by NBIC as an automated alert and notification system for emergency response 141/153 (92%) contacted by email / phone Significant interagency coordination during events Significant interagency governance participation 23
Agenda 1 Why national biosurveillance integration? 2 How does NBIC do biosurveillance integration? 3 What is the NBIC operations impact? 4 Biosurveillance Innovation: NCB-P Pilot 24
National Collaborative for Bio-Preparedness Early Warning Requires Integration of Many Data Sets Incident Data Generated by the Incident Clinical Specificity over Time Situational Awareness with Analytics 25
Currently Unutilized Data Set #1: EMS Reporting CA AK OR WA NV ID AZ UT HI MT WY NM CO ND SD NE TX KS OK MN IA MO AR LA WI IL MS IN MI TN AL KY OH GA PA MD WV VA SC FL NC NJ DE ME VT NH NY MA CT RI Nothing planned State system, NEMSIS planned State system, NEMSIS evolving NEMSIS standard NEMSIS =National Emergency Medical Services Information System 26
Currently Under-Utilized Data Set #2: Poison Control Centers 57 Poison Centers across the nation use a common data format 27
Currently Unutilized Data Set #3: Veterinary Clinics 802 veterinary clinics nationwide using the same EMR system 28
Piloting Advanced Analytics: GI Distress data from 2009 and 2010 300 GI Distress by Date EMS data 250 200 150 100 50 N Mean Std Dev Minimum Maximum 729 153.35 24.41 67 239 0 29
Piloting Advanced Analytics: GI Distress data from 2009 and 2010 300 GI Distress by Date EMS data 250 Jan 17, 2010 Feb 3, 2010 200 150 Jan 31, 2010 Jan 24, 2010 100 Jan 3, 2010 Dec 6, 2009 50 0 30
Event Detection: Media Reporting Later than EMS and other Data Sources 31
Piloting Advanced Analytics: EMS Flu data from 2009 and 2010; CUSUM and TAP Analysis 32
Piloting Advanced Analytics: ED Flu data from 2009 and 2010; CUSUM and TAP Analysis 33
Contact Information NBIC: NBICOHA@hq.dhs.gov 202-282-8597 State, Local, Tribal, Territorial Biosurveillance Common Operating Picture (BCOP): NBIC-OHA-SLTTBCOP@hq.dhs.gov 202-447-3059 34 34