[{"innerBlocks":[],"name":"core\/freeform","postId":1438,"blockType":{"name":"core\/freeform","keywords":[],"attributes":{"content":{"type":"string","source":"raw"},"lock":{"type":"object"}},"providesContext":[],"usesContext":[],"selectors":[],"supports":{"className":false,"customClassName":false,"reusable":false},"styles":[],"variations":[],"apiVersion":3,"title":"Classic","description":"Use the classic WordPress editor.","category":"text"},"originalContent":"A real-time website developed by pathologists at Houston Methodist health system can track confirmed flu cases with epidemiology data from its eight hospitals.

The website<\/a>, which filters information by various pathogens and date intervals going back to 2015, actively reports on influenza A, influenza B, respiratory syncytial virus, as well as rhinovirus and enterovirus.

\u201cIt updates every morning with the previous day\u2019s data,\u201d says Wesley Long, MD, assistant professor of pathology and genomic medicine at the Houston Methodist Research Institute. \u201cEvery morning there\u2019s a data pull that\u2019s done from our lab information system and that gets imported into the website.\u201d

Also See<\/b>: Northwell Health automates efforts to fight flu epidemic<\/a>

Houston Methodist is using the Chart.js framework\u2014a popular open source library\u2014to easily plot data in HTML5-based JavaScript charts for web applications, according to Paul Christensen, MD, a clinical informatics fellow at the health system.

While the website is available to anyone with an Internet connection and web browser, including those members of the public using mobile devices, the information is meant to assist clinicians in treating patients. In particular, the goal of providing physicians with access to accurate regional laboratory observation data during a flu epidemic is to help them develop a diagnostic and therapeutic strategy.

\u201cIt\u2019s useful to our clinicians and to other clinicians in our community,\u201d adds Long. \u201cThe benefit of making the data publicly available is that it eliminates the need for clinicians to have to log in to a secure healthcare IT environment to access the data.\u201d

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monitors influenza-like illnesses (ILI) in the United States by gathering information from physicians\u2019 reports about patients with ILI seeking medical attention\u2014one of the most widely used methods for tracking flu.

Although CDC\u2019s ILI data provides useful estimates of influenza activity, its availability has a lag time of one week or more, contends Long.

\u201cA lot of things can change in a week or two in terms of how an epidemic progresses,\u201d he observes. \u201cThat\u2019s the main drawback of other data sources.\u201d

Houston Methodist began developing the website during the fall 2017 flu season, when the greater Houston area recorded a major increase in flu cases, according to Long.

\u201cThis flu season, so far, has been fairly quiet,\u201d he notes, while adding that the health system\u2019s hospitals \u201care seeing higher rates of respiratory syncytial virus than we typically see this time year\u2014but influenza itself has been relatively mild, especially compared to last year\u2019s epidemic.\u201d

Going forward, Houston Methodist is considering expanding the website to include epidemiology data for other diseases, such as gastrointestinal infections such as E. coli, <\/i>Salmonella and Shigella.

\u201cThe other low-hanging fruit for this sort of reporting would be to look at our gastrointestinal illness panel,\u201d concludes Long.","saveContent":"A real-time website developed by pathologists at Houston Methodist health system can track confirmed flu cases with epidemiology data from its eight hospitals.

The website<\/a>, which filters information by various pathogens and date intervals going back to 2015, actively reports on influenza A, influenza B, respiratory syncytial virus, as well as rhinovirus and enterovirus.

\u201cIt updates every morning with the previous day\u2019s data,\u201d says Wesley Long, MD, assistant professor of pathology and genomic medicine at the Houston Methodist Research Institute. \u201cEvery morning there\u2019s a data pull that\u2019s done from our lab information system and that gets imported into the website.\u201d

Also See<\/b>: Northwell Health automates efforts to fight flu epidemic<\/a>

Houston Methodist is using the Chart.js framework\u2014a popular open source library\u2014to easily plot data in HTML5-based JavaScript charts for web applications, according to Paul Christensen, MD, a clinical informatics fellow at the health system.

While the website is available to anyone with an Internet connection and web browser, including those members of the public using mobile devices, the information is meant to assist clinicians in treating patients. In particular, the goal of providing physicians with access to accurate regional laboratory observation data during a flu epidemic is to help them develop a diagnostic and therapeutic strategy.

\u201cIt\u2019s useful to our clinicians and to other clinicians in our community,\u201d adds Long. \u201cThe benefit of making the data publicly available is that it eliminates the need for clinicians to have to log in to a secure healthcare IT environment to access the data.\u201d

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monitors influenza-like illnesses (ILI) in the United States by gathering information from physicians\u2019 reports about patients with ILI seeking medical attention\u2014one of the most widely used methods for tracking flu.

Although CDC\u2019s ILI data provides useful estimates of influenza activity, its availability has a lag time of one week or more, contends Long.

\u201cA lot of things can change in a week or two in terms of how an epidemic progresses,\u201d he observes. \u201cThat\u2019s the main drawback of other data sources.\u201d

Houston Methodist began developing the website during the fall 2017 flu season, when the greater Houston area recorded a major increase in flu cases, according to Long.

\u201cThis flu season, so far, has been fairly quiet,\u201d he notes, while adding that the health system\u2019s hospitals \u201care seeing higher rates of respiratory syncytial virus than we typically see this time year\u2014but influenza itself has been relatively mild, especially compared to last year\u2019s epidemic.\u201d

Going forward, Houston Methodist is considering expanding the website to include epidemiology data for other diseases, such as gastrointestinal infections such as E. coli, <\/i>Salmonella and Shigella.

\u201cThe other low-hanging fruit for this sort of reporting would be to look at our gastrointestinal illness panel,\u201d concludes Long.","order":0,"get_parent":{},"attributes":[],"attributesType":{"content":{"type":"string","source":"raw"},"lock":{"type":"object"}},"dynamicContent":""}]

Houston Methodist website provides flu tracking

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