Incidence of long COVID among U.S. children and adults during the omicron era - Tracking Post-COVID Conditions (Track-PCC) network, 2022-2023.

Background: Long COVID, or Post-COVID Conditions (PCC), refers to new and persisting sequelae occurring in the months following an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. Although previous studies have reported estimates of PCC incidence, few have examined trends during the Omicron variant period or have included geographically distinct regions for the same time periods.

Methods: Track PCC is a surveillance network, leveraging electronic health records and public health data to monitor incidence over time across five diverse geographic sites in the U.

Assessing Public Health Capacity for Infectious Disease Modeling: A Qualitative Study of State and Local Agencies.

Infectious disease modeling and forecasting tools are crucial for outbreak management. However, variability exists in the capacity of state and local health departments to effectively utilize these tools, influenced by factors such as infrastructure, funding, staff capacity, and data access. This study aims to identify the current priorities, needs, and capacities of state and local public health departments regarding infectious disease modeling and forecasting tools.

Estimated 2023-2024 COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness in Adults.

Importance: SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve, population immunity changes, and COVID-19 vaccine formulas have been updated, necessitating ongoing COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) monitoring.

Objectives: To evaluate the VE of 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccines against COVID-19-associated emergency department (ED) and urgent care (UC) encounters, hospitalizations, and critical illness, including during XBB- and JN.1-predominant periods.

Using a statewide health information exchange to enhance COVID research and surveillance: The impact of information fragmentation.

Objective: Use of electronic health data for public health surveillance and research has become almost ubiquitous. However, since many patients routinely receive care from multiple healthcare systems, not all information for a patient may be available in a single system. Thus, using data from only a single healthcare system may unintentionally result in inaccuracies.

Equivalence of electronic health record data for measuring hypertension prevalence: a retrospective comparison to BRFSS with data from two Indiana health systems, 2021.

Background: Public health surveillance requires timely access to actionable data at every level. Current approaches for accessing chronic disease surveillance data are not sufficient, and health departments are increasingly looking to augment surveillance efforts using electronic health records (EHRs). While proven effective for acute syndromic surveillance, the utilization of EHR systems and health data networks for monitoring chronic conditions remains sparse.

Developing a Computable Phenotype for Identifying Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults With Diabetes Using Electronic Health Records in the DiCAYA Network.

Objective: The Diabetes in Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults (DiCAYA) network seeks to create a nationwide electronic health record (EHR)-based diabetes surveillance system. This study aimed to develop a DiCAYA-wide EHR-based computable phenotype (CP) to identify prevalent cases of diabetes.

Research Design And Methods: We conducted network-wide chart reviews of 2,134 youth (aged <18 years) and 2,466 young adults (aged 18 to <45 years) among people with possible diabetes.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine effectiveness against RSV-associated hospitalisations and emergency department encounters among adults aged 60 years and older in the USA, October, 2023, to March, 2024: a test-negative design analysis.

Background: Respiratory syncytial virus vaccines first recommended for use during 2023 were efficacious against lower respiratory tract disease in clinical trials. Limited real-world data regarding respiratory syncytial virus vaccine effectiveness are available. To inform vaccine policy and address gaps in evidence from the clinical trials, we aimed to assess the effectiveness against respiratory syncytial virus-associated hospitalisations and emergency department encounters among adults aged at least 60 years.

Electronic Health Records for Population Health Management: Comparison of Electronic Health Record-Derived Hypertension Prevalence Measures Against Established Survey Data.

Background: Hypertension is the most prevalent risk factor for mortality globally. Uncontrolled hypertension is associated with excess morbidity and mortality, and nearly one-half of individuals with hypertension do not have the condition under control. Data from electronic health record (EHR) systems may be useful for community hypertension surveillance, filling a gap in local public health departments' community health assessments and supporting the public health data modernization initiatives currently underway.

Treatment Rates for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae in a Metropolitan Area: Observational Cohort Analysis.

Background: Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC) are the 2 most common sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regularly publishes and updates STI Treatment Guidelines. The purpose of this study was to measure and compare treatment rates for CT and GC among public and private providers.

Identification of Hypertension in Electronic Health Records Through Computable Phenotype Development and Validation for Use in Public Health Surveillance: Retrospective Study.

Background: Electronic health record (EHR) systems are widely used in the United States to document care delivery and outcomes. Health information exchange (HIE) networks, which integrate EHR data from the various health care providers treating patients, are increasingly used to analyze population-level data. Existing methods for population health surveillance of essential hypertension by public health authorities may be complemented using EHR data from HIE networks to characterize disease burden at the community level.

Navigating the Landscape: Barriers and Facilitators in Electronic Case Reporting Implementation Across Public Health Agencies.

Objective: The objectives were to identify barriers and facilitators for electronic case reporting (eCR) implementation associated with "organizational" and "people"-based knowledge/processes and to identify patterns across implementation stages to guide best practices for eCR implementation at public health agencies.

Design: This qualitative study uses semistructured interviews with key stakeholders across 6 public health agencies. This study leveraged 2 conceptual frameworks for the development of the interview guide and initial codebook and the organization of the findings of thematic analysis.

Clinical Epidemiology and Risk Factors for Critical Outcomes Among Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Adults Hospitalized With COVID-19-VISION Network, 10 States, June 2021-March 2023.

Background: The epidemiology of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to develop with emerging variants, expanding population-level immunity, and advances in clinical care. We describe changes in the clinical epidemiology of COVID-19 hospitalizations and risk factors for critical outcomes over time.

Methods: We included adults aged ≥18 years from 10 states hospitalized with COVID-19 June 2021-March 2023.

Generalizability and portability of natural language processing system to extract individual social risk factors.

Objective: The objective of this study is to validate and report on portability and generalizability of a Natural Language Processing (NLP) method to extract individual social factors from clinical notes, which was originally developed at a different institution.

Materials And Methods: A rule-based deterministic state machine NLP model was developed to extract financial insecurity and housing instability using notes from one institution and was applied on all notes written during 6 months at another institution. 10% of positively-classified notes by NLP and the same number of negatively-classified notes were manually annotated.

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the nation's public health information systems infrastructure: synthesis of discussions from the 2022 ACMI Symposium.

Objective: The annual American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) symposium focused discussion on the national public health information systems (PHIS) infrastructure to support public health goals. The objective of this article is to present the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities (SWOT) identified by public health and informatics leaders in attendance.

Materials And Methods: The Symposium provided a venue for experts in biomedical informatics and public health to brainstorm, identify, and discuss top PHIS challenges.

Natural language processing-driven state machines to extract social factors from unstructured clinical documentation.

Objective: This study sought to create natural language processing algorithms to extract the presence of social factors from clinical text in 3 areas: (1) housing, (2) financial, and (3) unemployment. For generalizability, finalized models were validated on data from a separate health system for generalizability.

Materials And Methods: Notes from 2 healthcare systems, representing a variety of note types, were utilized.

Enhancing the nation's public health information infrastructure: a report from the ACMI symposium.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed multiple weaknesses in the nation's public health system. Therefore, the American College of Medical Informatics selected "Rebuilding the Nation's Public Health Informatics Infrastructure" as the theme for its annual symposium. Experts in biomedical informatics and public health discussed strategies to strengthen the US public health information infrastructure through policy, education, research, and development.

Relationships Between Social Vulnerability and Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination Coverage and Vaccine Effectiveness.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination coverage remains lower in communities with higher social vulnerability. Factors such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) exposure risk and access to healthcare are often correlated with social vulnerability and may therefore contribute to a relationship between vulnerability and observed vaccine effectiveness (VE). Understanding whether these factors impact VE could contribute to our understanding of real-world VE.

Findings From a Scoping Review: Presumptive Treatment for Chlamydiatrachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae in the United States, 2006-2021.

Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC) are the 2 most common reported sexually transmitted infections in the United States. Current recommendations are to presumptively treat CT and/or GC in persons with symptoms or known contact. This review characterizes the literature around studies with presumptive treatment, including identifying rates of presumptive treatment and overtreatment and undertreatment rates.

SARS-CoV-2 Infection, Hospitalization, and Death in Vaccinated and Infected Individuals by Age Groups in Indiana, 2021‒2022.

To assess the effectiveness of vaccine-induced immunity against new infections, all-cause emergency department (ED) and hospital visits, and mortality in Indiana. Combining statewide testing and immunization data with patient medical records, we matched individuals who received at least 1 dose of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines with individuals with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection on index date, age, gender, race/ethnicity, zip code, and clinical diagnoses. We compared the cumulative incidence of infection, all-cause ED visits, hospitalizations, and mortality.

Evaluating a Prototype Clinical Decision Support Tool for Chronic Pain Treatment in Primary Care.

Objectives: The Chronic Pain Treatment Tracker (Tx Tracker) is a prototype decision support tool to aid primary care clinicians when caring for patients with chronic noncancer pain. This study evaluated clinicians' perceived utility of Tx Tracker in meeting information needs and identifying treatment options, and preferences for visual design.

Methods: We conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with primary care clinicians from four health systems in Indiana.

Combining Nonclinical Determinants of Health and Clinical Data for Research and Evaluation: Rapid Review.

Background: Nonclinical determinants of health are of increasing importance to health care delivery and health policy. Concurrent with growing interest in better addressing patients' nonmedical issues is the exponential growth in availability of data sources that provide insight into these nonclinical determinants of health.

Objective: This review aimed to characterize the state of the existing literature on the use of nonclinical health indicators in conjunction with clinical data sources.