Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics

Associate Professor of Intelligent Systems

Director of DBMI Corporate Relations

Director of Real-time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance (RODS) Laboratory

Contact Info:

Research Interests

Dr. Wagner’s research focuses on real-time methods for detecting and characterizing disease outbreaks, including the development and testing of operational biosurveillance systems. In his role as director of the RODS Laboratory, Dr. Wagner led the development and implementation of two widely used biosurveillance systems: the RODS system and the National Retail Data Monitor (NRDM).

Currently, Dr. Wagner is developing a third system called BioEcon. BioEcon is a decision analytic tool for use by analysts working in health departments. BioEcon is a logical extension of Dr. Wagner’s research in biosurveillance. BioEcon addresses the problem of what is the optimal action to take in response to incoming biosurveillance data.

Education

Dates Attended: 1991-1995
Name and Location of Institution: University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Degree Received and Year: PhD, 1995
Major Subject: Intelligent Systems

Dates Attended: 1988-1991
Name and Location of Institution: University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Degree Received and Year: MS, 1991
Major Subject: Intelligent Systems

Dates Attended: 1973-1975
Name and Location of Institution: SUNY at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York
Degree Received and Year: BS, 1975
Major Subject: Biology

Publications

Selected Journal Publications

Jiang X, Wallstrom G, Cooper GF, Wagner MM. Bayesian prediction of an epidemic curve. J Biomed Inform. 2008 Jun 13. PMID: 18593605

Wu TS, Shih FY, Yen MY, Wu JS, Lu SW, Chang KC, Hsiung C, Chou JH, Chu YT, Chang H, Chiu CH, Tsui FC, Wagner MM, Su IJ, King CC. Establishing a nationwide emergency department-based syndromic surveillance system for better public health responses in Taiwan. BMC Public Health. 2008 Jan 18;8:18. PMID: 18201388

Shaffer L, Funk J, Rajala-Schultz P, Wallstrom G, Wagner MM, Saville W. Early Outbreak Detection using an Automated Data Feed of Test Orders from a Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Lecture Notes in Computer Science: Intelligence and Security Informatics: Biosurveillance, 2007; 4506: 1-10. ISSN 0302-9743 (Print); 1611-3349 (Online)

Hogan WR, Cooper GF, Wallstrom GL, Wagner MM, Depinay JM. The Bayesian aerosol release detector: an algorithm for detecting and characterizing outbreaks caused by an atmospheric release of Bacillus anthracis. Stat Med. 2007 Dec 20;26(29):5225-52. PMID: 17948918

Tsai M-C, Tsui F-C, and Wagner MM. An Evaluation of Biosurveillance GridDynamic Algorithm Distribution Across Multiple Computer Nodes. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2007:746-750. PMID: 18693936

Que J, Tsui FC, Wagner MM. Timeliness study of radiology and microbiology reports in a healthcare system for biosurveillance. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2006:1068. PMID: 17238687

Chapman WW, Dowling JN, Wagner MM. Classification of emergency department chief complaints into 7 syndromes: a retrospective analysis of 527,228 patients. Ann Emerg Med. Nov 2005; 46(5): 445-55. PMID: 16271676

Chapman WW, Dowling JN, Wagner MM. Generating a reliable reference standard set for syndromic case classification. J Am Med Inform Assoc. Nov-Dec 2005;12(6): 618-29. PMID: 16049227

Wong W-K, Cooper GF, Dash DH, Levander JD, Dowling J, Hogan WR, Wagner MM. Use of Multiple Data Streams to Conduct Bayesian Biologic Surveillance. CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, August 26 2005, 54 (Supplement), 63-69 PMID: 16177695

Wallstrom GL, Wagner MM, Hogan WR. High-Fidelity Injection Detectability Experiments: A Tool for Evaluation of Syndromic Surveillance Systems. CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, August 26 2005, 54 (Supplement), 85-91. PMID: 16177698

Chapman WW, Dowling JN, Ivanov O, Olszewski B, Wagner MM. Three Stages of Evaluation for Syndromic Surveillance from Chief Complaint Classification. CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, August 26 2005, 54 (Supplement), 185.

Chapman WW, Christensen LM, Wagner MM, Haug PJ, Ivanov O, Dowling JN, Olszewski RT. Classifying Free-text Triage Chief Complaints into Syndromic Categories with a Medical Language Processing System. Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, Volume 33, Issue 1, Pages 1-106 (January 2005). PMID: 15617980

Dato VM, Wagner MM, Fapohunda A. How Outbreaks of Infectious Disease are Detected: Results of a Survey of Surveillance Systems and Outbreaks. Public Health Reports 119 (Sept/Oct): 464-471, 2004. PMID: 15313109

Wagner MM, Tsui F-C, Espino JU, Hogan WR, Hutman J, Hersh J, Neill D, Moore AW, Parks GA, Lewis C, Aller R. The National Retail Data Monitor for Public Health Surveillance. CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 53 (Supplement 1) 40-42, 2004. PMID: 15714625

Wagner MM, Espino JU, Tsui F-C, Gesteland P, Chapman WW, Ivanov O, Moore AW, Wong WK, Dowling J, Hutman J. Syndrome and Outbreak Detection from Chief Complaints: The Experience of the Real-Time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance Project. DC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 53 (Supplement 1) 28-31, 2004. PMID: 15714623

Espino JU, Wagner MM, Szczepaniak MC, Tsui F-C, Su H, Olszewski R, Liu Z, Zeng X, Ma L, Lu Z, Dara J. Removing a Barrier to Computer-Based Outbreak and Disease Surveillance: The RODS Open Source Project. CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 53 (Supplement 1) 32-39, 2004. PMID: 15714624

Wagner MM, Dato VM, Dowling JN, Allswede M. Representative Threats for Research in Public Health Surveillance. Journal of Biomedical Informatics 36: 177-188, 2003. PMID: 14615227

Wagner MM, Robinson JM, Tsui F-C, Espino JU, Hogan WR. Design of a National Retail Data Monitor for Public Health Surveillance. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 10/5 (Sept/Oct) 409-418, 2003. PMID: 12807802

Tsui F-C, Espino JU, Dato VM, Gesteland PH, Hutman J, Wagner MM. Technical Description of RODS: A Real-time Public Health Surveillance System. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 10/5 (Sept/Oct) 399-408, 2003. PMID: 12807803

Mandl KD, Overhage JM, Wagner MM, Lober WB, Sebastiani P, Mostashari F, Pavlin JA, Gesteland PH, Treadwell T, Koski E, Hutwagner L, Buckeridge DL, Aller RD, Grannis S. Implementing syndromic surveillance: a practical guide informed by the early experience. [J Am Med Inform Assoc]. 2004 Mar-Apr;11(2):141-50. Epub 2003 Nov 21. PMID: 14633933

Selected Conference Proceedings

Wagner MM, Wallstrom GL, Onisko A. Issue a boil-water advisory or wait for definitive information? A decision analysis. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2005:774-8. PMID: 1677914

Hogan WR, Wallstrom GL, Wagner MM. An evaluation of three policies for updating product categories in the National Retail Data Monitor. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2005:325-9. PMID: 16779055

Sabhnani MR, Neill DB, Moore AW, Tsui F-C, Wagner MM, Espino JU. Detecting anomalous patterns in pharmacy retail data. Proceedings of the KDD 2005 Workshop on Data Mining Methods for Anomaly Detection.

Wong, W.-K., Cooper, G., Dash, D., Levander, J., Dowling, J., Hogan, W., and Wagner, MM. (2005). Population-wide Anomaly Detection. KDD 2005 Workshop on Data Mining Methods for Anomaly Detection (pp. 79-83).

Sabhnani MR, Neill DB, Moore AW, Tsui F-C, Wagner MM, and Espino JU. Monitoring pharmacy retail data for anomalous space-time clusters. Proceedings of the National Syndromic Surveillance Conference, 2005.

Zhang J, Tsui FC, Wagner MM, Hogan WR. Detection of outbreaks from time series data using wavelet transform. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2003:748-52. PMID: 14728273

Ma L, Tsui FC, Hogan WR, Wagner MM, Ma H. A framework for infection control surveillance using association rules. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2003:410-4. PMID: 14728205

Ivanov O, Gesteland PH, Hogan W, Mundorff MB, Wagner MM. Detection of pediatric respiratory and gastrointestinal outbreaks from free-text chief complaints. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2003:318-22. PMID: 14728186

Espino JU, Hogan WR, Wagner MM. Telephone triage: a timely data source for surveillance of influenza-like diseases. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2003:215-9. PMID: 14728165

Books and Book Chapters

Wagner MM, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Wagner MM. Chapter 1: Introduction. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Dato V, Shephard R, Wagner MM. Chapter 2: Outbreaks and Investigations. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Wagner MM, Gresham LS, Dato V. Chapter 3: Case Detection, Outbreak Detection, and Outbreak Characterization. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Wagner MM, Shaffer L, Shephard R. Chapter 4: Functional Requirements for Biosurveillance. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Velikina R, Dato V, Wagner MM. Chapter 5: Governmental Public Health. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Wagner MM, Hogan W, Aryel A. Chapter 6: The Healthcare System. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Brokopp C, Resultan E, Holmes H, Wagner MM. Chapter 8: Laboratories. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Aryel R, Wagner MM. Chapter 11: Coroners and Medical Examiners. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Wagner MM, Pavlin J, Cox KL, Cirino NM. Chapter 12: Other Organizations that Conduct Biosurveillance. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Tsui F-C, Wagner MM, Espino JU, Shephard R. Chapter 13: Case-Detection Algorithms. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Cooper GF, Dash DH, Levander JD, Wong W-K, HoganWR, Wagner MM. Chapter 18: Bayesian Methods for Diagnosing Outbreaks. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Wagner MM, Wallstrom G. Chapter 20: Methods for Algorithm Evaluation. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Wagner MM. Chapter 21: Methods for Evaluating Surveillance Data. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Hogan WR, Wagner MM. Chapter 22: Sales of Over-the-Counter Healthcare Products. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Wagner MM, Hogan WR, Chapman WW, Gesteland PH. Chapter 23: Chief Complaints and ICD Codes. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Aryel R, Wagner MM. Chapter 25: Emergency Call Centers. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Wagner MM, Johnson HA, Dato V. Chapter 26: The Internet as Sentinel. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Wagner MM, Campbell M. Chapter 28: Data NOS (Not Otherwise Specified). In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Onisko A, Wallstrom G, Wagner MM. Chapter 29: Decision Analysis. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Wallstrom G, Wagner MM, Onisko A. Chapter 30: Probabilistic Interpretation of Surveillance Data. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Lee BY, Wagner MM, Onisko A, Grigoryan V. Chapter 31: Economic Studies in Biosurveillance. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Hogan WR, Wagner MM. Chapter 32: Standards in Biosurveillance. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Espino JU, Hutchison K, Wagner MM. Chapter 33: Architecture. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Szczepaniak MC, Goodman KW, Wagner MM, Hutman J, Daswani S. Chapter 34: Advancing Organizational Integration: Negotiation, Data Use Agreements, Law and Ethics. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

DeFrancesco, Hutchison K, Wagner MM. Chapter 35: Other Design and Implementation Issues. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Wagner MM. Chapter 37: Methods for Field Testing of Biosurveillance Systems. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Grants

1 R01 LM009132-01A2       Wagner (PI)      09/30/2008 — 09/29/2012
NIH/NLM
Decision Making in Biosurveillance
The long-term objective of this research is to advance the use of decision analysis in biosurveillance.
The specific aims of the research are to (1) construct decision analyses of representative biosurveillance decision problems using standard decision analytic techniques, and (2) deploy the underlying decision models in a decision-support system for analysts and epidemiologists.
Role: PI

R01 PH000024-01      Wallstrom (PI)      09/30/07 — 09/29/09
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Disaster Planning and Management
The major goal of this project is to support the BioSense Initiative by developing a software platform for biosurveillance staff and researchers that allow them to measure the sensitivity, specificity, detection timeliness, and smallest detectable outbreak of a surveillance system.
Role: Co-investigator

IIS-0325581      Cooper (PI)      09/15/03 — 08/31/09
National Science Foundation
Bayesian Modeling for Biosurveillance
The major goal of this project is to develop algorithms for the analysis of public health surveillance data.
Role: Co-Investigator

1 RO1 PH000026-01      Hogan (PI)      09/30/05 — 09/29/09
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Improving Detection of Outbreaks Due to Aerosol Attacks
The major goal of this project is to determine the ability of the Bayesian Aerosol Release Detector (BARD) to address the problem of early detection of bioterrorism attacks where bioterrorists release a biological agent into the atmosphere as an aerosol.
Role: Co-Investigator