Archived Talks

University of Pittsburgh Department of Biomedical Informatics Lecture Announcement

Speaker: Garrick Wallstrom, PhD,
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics
Senior Statistician, RODS Laboratory

Friday, September 28, 2007
11:00 AM to 12:00 noon
Room M-184 VALE [?]
200 Meyran Avenue

Topic: “Detectability Studies in Biosurveillance”

Abstract: Disease surveillance systems monitor clinical and behavioral data for indications of outbreaks. These systems typically use statistical anomaly-detection algorithms and generate alerts when data anomalies are found. System evaluation metrics include the sensitivity, specificity, detection timeliness, and other detectability characteristics of a surveillance system. These measurements are critical for evaluating not only the performance of an overall system but also the performance of outbreak detection algorithms, studying the utility of surveillance data sources, and designing more effective surveillance systems. This talk will cover quantitative evaluation of surveillance systems and describe HiFIDE, a software tool for conducting detectability studies.

For more information: jxc3@pitt.edu or 412.647.7113