PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

New paper describes use of geographic monitoring for early COVID cluster detection

GeoMEDD enhances traditional mapping to find location of group outbreaks

2021-01-06
(Press-News.org) CLEVELAND - In a new paper, researchers describe their development of a near-real time spatial assessment of COVID-19 cases to help guide local medical responses to clusters of outbreaks of the virus at the local level.

The paper, entitled "Geographic monitoring for early disease detection (GeoMEDD)," appeared in the Dec. 10 issue of Nature Scientific Reports and comes from researchers at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine, University Hospitals (UH) Cleveland Medical Center, and Texas A & M University.

While developing a tracking system during the beginning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors realized that there was a need to refocus more traditional spatial mapping towards a more granular cluster detection methodology that provides syndromic surveillance, or early indicators of emergent disease by leveraging a health system's access to data streams from various sources which account for location and timing of cases.

"Without such integration, there are missed opportunities for hospitals, health departments, and community leaders to mobilize early intervention activities and save lives. This information provides insights to targeted community testing opportunities, post-acute care intervention, and targeted community education in areas with community spread," said lead author Andrew Curtis, PhD, Co-Director of the GIS Health & Hazards Lab and Professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at the CWRU School of Medicine.

"From a hospital and health system perspective, such disease propagation can rapidly tax capacity and resources. From a humanitarian dimension, being able to communicate with local communities, municipality or even building managers requires both time and space insights," said Curtis.

The authors propose, for example, that positive COVID-19 test results could be analyzed in real time as they flow into a health system, which when combined with severity of the associated symptoms, details such as age and previous medical histories of the patient, and the background neighborhood "risk" could all be added to provide a contextualized understanding of not only where disease occurs but why, and where it is likely to spread next.

"Early detection is critical to interception and potential spread of disease, and is helpful at identifying areas of vulnerability so that efforts can be adequately prioritized," said Jayakrishnan Ajayakumar, PhD, Lab Manager of the GIS Health & Hazards Lab in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at the CWRU School of Medicine, who developed the necessary software. "The tracking system also helps prepare medical and first response teams for potential surge planning."

GeoMEDD does not replace traditional forms of disease cluster detection, rather it enhances investigation in near real-time and in the context of health system operations to a dynamic situation.

"Syndromic surveillance interest lies in the first case in a post-acute care home, or the timing pattern of emerging positives in an apartment complex, or along a rural street, or how houses on city streets 'emerge' suggesting a local transmission mechanism," said Maulik Purohit, MD, MPH, Associate Chief Medical Information Officer at UH. "With this information, teams can mobilize to minimize the spread. This methodology will be relevant for many infectious diseases and operational responses, not just COVID."

By identifying these emergent patterns in the continuous data streams available to health systems, rational and evidence-based strategies could potentially be used to reduce further transmission.

"COVID spreads very efficiently in congregate housing and narrowing the time lag between knowledge of an emergent case and implementation of evidence-based interventions could help to save lives," said Justin Yax, DO, Director of Population Health, Department of Emergency Medicine at UH.

These data have also been helpful to local health departments and community leaders and has gained interest and support from the state.

While contact tracing remains a vital part of understanding disease spread, the clusters described here reveal geographic patterns and aspects of diffusion in near real time -- much sooner than other public health monitoring currently available in the region.

While COVID-19 provided the stimulus for these new method developments, the application extends far beyond this pandemic to potentially other future epidemics, to regular flu seasons, to outbreaks of overdoses, and to surveillance looking for bioterror or radiological symptoms.

"GeoMEDD should be seen as the first step in the development of a suite of clusters nuanced to varying geographies (urban versus rural, even vertical living environments), or specific topics," said Jacqueline Curtis, PhD, Co-Director of the GIS Health & Hazards Lab and Associate Professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at the CWRU School of Medicine.

INFORMATION:

About University Hospitals Founded in 1866, University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of 19 hospitals, more than 50 health centers and outpatient facilities, and 200 physician offices in 16 counties throughout northern Ohio. The system's flagship academic medical center, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, located in Cleveland's University Circle, is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The main campus also includes University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; University Hospitals MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute, a high-volume national referral center for complex cardiovascular procedures; and University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. UH is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research programs in the nation, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopedics, radiology, neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, digestive health, transplantation and urology. UH Cleveland Medical Center is perennially among the highest performers in national ranking surveys, including "America's Best Hospitals" from U.S. News & World Report. UH is also home to Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals - part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development. UH is one of the largest employers in Northeast Ohio with 28,000 physicians and employees. Advancing the Science of Health and the Art of Compassion is UH's vision for benefitting its patients into the future, and the organization's unwavering mission is To Heal. To Teach. To Discover. Follow UH on LinkedIn, Facebook @UniversityHospitals and Twitter @UHhospitals. For more information, visit UHhospitals.org.

About Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University is one of the country's leading private research institutions. Located in Cleveland, we offer a unique combination of forward-thinking educational opportunities in an inspiring cultural setting. Our leading-edge faculty engage in teaching and research in a collaborative, hands-on environment. Our nationally recognized programs include arts and sciences, dental medicine, engineering, law, management, medicine, nursing and social work. About 5,100 undergraduate and 6,700 graduate students comprise our student body. Visit case.edu to see how Case Western Reserve thinks beyond the possible.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Israel can expect a major earthquake of 6.5 on the Richter scale in the coming years

Israel can expect a major earthquake of  6.5 on the Richter scale in the coming years
2021-01-06
A first-of-its-kind study conducted under the bed of the Dead Sea reveals that a devastating earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale is expected to hit our region in the coming years. The study showed that an earthquake of this magnitude occurs in the land of Israel on an average cycle of between 130 and 150 years, but there have been cases in history where the lull between one earthquake and another was only a few decades long. The last earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter scale was felt in the Dead Sea valley in 1927, when hundreds of people were injured in Amman, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and even Jaffa. Now, in the wake of the findings ...

Gut microbe may promote breast cancers

2021-01-06
A microbe found in the colon and commonly associated with the development of colitis and colon cancer also may play a role in the development of some breast cancers, according to new research from investigators with the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and its Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Breast tissue cells exposed to this toxin retain a long-term memory, increasing the risk for disease. In a series of laboratory experiments, researchers discovered that when enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis (ETBF) was introduced to the guts or breast ducts of mice, it always induced growth and metastatic progression of tumor cells. A description of the work is published in the January 6 issue of the journal Cancer Discovery. While microbes are known to be present in ...

Advancing the study of T cells to improve immunotherapy

Advancing the study of T cells to improve immunotherapy
2021-01-06
DALLAS - Jan. 6, 2020 - UT Southwestern scientists have developed a new method to study the molecular characteristics of T cells, critical immune cells that recognize and attack invaders in the body such as viruses, bacteria, and cancer. The approach, described today in the journal Nature Methods, enables researchers to more easily analyze the roles of T cell receptors (TCRs) - the molecules on the surfaces of T cells that are responsible for recognizing pathogens. "This could lead to a better understanding of how T cells work as well as new ways to harness T cells to fight disease," ...

Long-term study finds dozens of new genetic markers associated with lifetime bone growth

2021-01-06
Philadelphia, January 6, 2021 - A multidisciplinary team of researchers led by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has discovered several genetic markers associated with bone mineral accrual, which could ultimately help identify causes of eventual osteoporosis earlier in life through genetic testing. The findings, which were made possible by following a group of children over several years, were published online by the journal Genome Biology. Osteoporosis is widely considered a disease of old age. However, the accrual of bone density early in life is critical for achieving optimal bone mass in adulthood ...

A prognostic Alzheimer's disease blood test in the symptom-free stage

A prognostic Alzheimers disease blood test in the symptom-free stage
2021-01-06
Using a blood test, a German-Dutch research team has predicted the risk of Alzheimer's disease in people who were clinically diagnosed as not having Alzheimer's disease but who perceived themselves as cognitively impaired (Subjective Cognitive Declined, SCD). The researchers analyzed blood samples from an SCD cohort supervised at the Alzheimer Center Amsterdam. Using a test developed at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) called the Immuno-Infrared Sensor, they identified all 22 subjects at study entry who developed Alzheimer's dementia, thus the clinical symptoms, within six years. The test ...

Why we use our smartphone at cafés

2021-01-06
Maybe you're like us. We're the folks who are on our smartphones almost all the time, even when we're with others. We know it annoys a lot of people, but we do it anyway. Why? Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have looked at why people in cafés pull out their phones, and how this affects café life. Three main reasons they identified are: to delay or pause a conversation (interaction suspension); to get out of a conversation (deliberately shielding interaction); and to share something with others (accessing shareables). But what does that actually mean? The smartphone is the world's most ubiquitous personal tech gizmo. ...

How can we help victims of torture?

2021-01-06
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, affects many people who are exposed to extreme situations, such as torture. Recent research suggests that chronic pain may make it more difficult to treat trauma. "Trauma-focused therapy is effective for many patients with PTSD, enabling them to talk through the trauma they experienced", according to Iselin Solerød Dibaj, a psychologist at Oslo University Hospital. However, not everyone benefits equally from this form of therapy. "Torture victims who struggle with both chronic pain and PTSD unfortunately often reap less benefit from ordinary treatment," says Dibaj. The Red Cross estimates that between 10 000 and 35 000 people with a refugee background who have come to Norway have experienced torture, reflecting ...

Businesses stand to benefit from sustainable restructuring

2021-01-06
The Earth is populated by an increasing number of  people who demand more and more products, which is simply not viable in the long run. Our planet does not have unlimited resources. Emissions are harming the environment in various ways. More companies thus need to switch to more sustainable production, sometimes due to pressure from consumers, but often resulting from new rules imposed by the authorities. But this kind of change can't ever pay off - or can it? A new study by a research group from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has reviewed 100 articles on how sustainably oriented innovation affects companies' competitiveness. "The ...

Detecting CRISPR/Cas gene doping

2021-01-06
All athletes want to be at the top of their game when they compete, but some resort to nefarious approaches to achieve peak muscle growth, speed and agility. Recent developments in gene editing technology could tempt athletes to change their DNA to get an edge. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Analytical Chemistry demonstrate first steps toward detecting this type of doping both in human plasma and in live mice. The gene editing method called CRISPR/Cas is a popular way for scientists to precisely change the DNA in many organisms, and it recently gained even more attention when key developers of the method were awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. With this method, researchers add an RNA molecule and a protein into cells. The RNA molecule guides the protein to the appropriate ...

A better pen-and-ink system for drawing flexible circuits

A better pen-and-ink system for drawing flexible circuits
2021-01-06
Conductive ink is a great tool for printing flexible electronic circuits on surfaces. But these inks can be costly, they do not work on some materials, and devices to apply them can plug up. Now, scientists report in ACS Applied Electronic Materials that they have developed inexpensive conductive inks for clog-free ballpoint pens that can allow users to "write" circuits almost anywhere -- even on human skin. Flexible electronics are widely used in applications such as biosensors, electronic skin and energy storage. Recent advances to produce such devices include pens ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

Targeting FGFR2 may prevent or delay some KRAS-mutated pancreatic cancers

[Press-News.org] New paper describes use of geographic monitoring for early COVID cluster detection
GeoMEDD enhances traditional mapping to find location of group outbreaks