New opportunities for surveillance information management for aquaculture and possible impacts on the way we do surveillance
It has been said that epidemiology provides tools to help make good decisions in the face of uncertainty. The natural state of an epidemiologist is to be unsatisfied with the quality and quantity of data available. Biostatistics provides tools to quantify uncertainty and guide reliable decision making, while surveillance methodologies have evolved to increase our capacity to confidently make statements about the population of interest, while keeping costs to a minimum.
The roots of the statistical and surveillance approaches extend back to nineteenth century and earlier, and some commonly used approaches were developed to address the practicalities of a pre-digital era. With the sudden availability of unparalleled communication and data management capabilities, many constraints in surveillance have been swept aside. However, there is a risk that we may continue to cling to outdated approaches designed to solve problems that no longer exist.
This paper presents an alternative model for disease surveillance, which moves from current approaches which simply make the most of inadequate data. Instead, we contend that it is now possible to develop practical, cost-effective surveillance systems that generate high quality real time data covering the entire population and all disease and other relevant events. Should we therefore not actively work towards this new surveillance paradigm, and free ourselves from historical constraints?
A vision for the future of epidemiology is also presented, where epidemiologists depend much less on the support of biostatisticians, and much more on social scientists and information and communication technology experts.
Keywords:
surveillance,
Epidemiology,
uncertainty,
multidisciplinary approach,
paradigm shift
Conference:
AquaEpi I - 2016, Oslo, Norway, 20 Sep - 22 Sep, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Keynote
Topic:
Aquatic Animal Epidemiology
Citation:
Cameron
AR
(2016). New opportunities for surveillance information management for aquaculture and possible impacts on the way we do surveillance.
Front. Vet. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
AquaEpi I - 2016.
doi: 10.3389/conf.FVETS.2016.02.00063
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Received:
12 Sep 2016;
Published Online:
14 Sep 2016.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Angus R Cameron, AusVet, Lyon, Rhone, 69001, France, angus@ausvet.eu