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Surveillance Methods (surveillance + methods)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	33%

Selected Abstracts

Technologies, Security, and Privacy in the Post-9/11 European Information Society

JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, Issue 2 2004
Michael Levi
Since 11 September 2001, many ,hard' and ,soft' security strategies have been introduced to enable more intensive surveillance and control of the movement of `suspect populations'. Suicide bombings have since generated a step-change in asymmetric threat analysis and public perceptions of risk. This article reviews how post-9/11 ,security' issues intersect with existing and emerging technologies, particularly those relating to identity, location, home, and work that will form the backbone of the European Information Society. The article explores the complexities generated by the way that these technologies work, sites of nationalist resistance, and formal bureaucratic roles. Many of the planned surveillance methods and technologies are convergence technologies aiming to bring together new and existing data sources, but are unable to do so because of poor data quality and the difficulty of using the integrated data to reduce serious crime risks. The delay may enable legal compliance models to be developed in order to protect the principles of privacy that are set out in the ECHR and the EC Data Protection Directive. Though (moral) panics produce changes in law, the article emphasizes the constraining effects of law. [source]

On the use and evaluation of prospective scan methods for health-related surveillance

JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY: SERIES A (STATISTICS IN SOCIETY), Issue 1 2008
William H. Woodall
Summary., We review some prospective scan-based methods that are used in health-related applications to detect increased rates of mortality or morbidity and to detect bioterrorism or active clusters of disease. We relate these methods to the use of the moving average chart in industrial applications. Issues that are related to the performance evaluation of spatiotemporal scan-based methods are discussed. In particular we clarify the definition of a recurrence interval and demonstrate that this measure does not reflect some important aspects of the statistical performance of scan-based, and other, surveillance methods. Some research needs in this area are given. [source]

Meta-analysis: surveillance with ultrasound for early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with cirrhosis

ALIMENTARY PHARMACOLOGY & THERAPEUTICS, Issue 1 2009
A. SINGAL
Summary Background, A majority of studies investigating the accuracy of ultrasound for detecting hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) do not reflect how this test is used for surveillance vs. diagnosis. Aim, To determine the performance characteristics of surveillance with ultrasound for the detection of HCC, particularly early HCC as defined by the Milan criteria. Methods, A systematic literature review using the MEDLINE and SCOPUS databases yielded six studies that evaluated the accuracy of ultrasound for HCC at any stage and 13 studies that were specific to early HCC. Results, Surveillance ultrasound detected the majority of tumours before they presented clinically, with a pooled sensitivity of 94%. However, ultrasound was less effective for detecting early HCC with a sensitivity of 63%. Alpha-fetoprotein provided no additional benefit to ultrasound. Meta-regression analysis demonstrated a significantly higher sensitivity for early HCC with ultrasound every 6 months than with annual surveillance. Current studies have limitations such as verification bias and are of suboptimal quality. Conclusions, Surveillance with ultrasound demonstrates limited sensitivity for early HCC, although this may be improved by testing at 6-month intervals. Currently available evidence evaluating surveillance ultrasound has significant limitations and future studies are necessary to determine optimal surveillance methods for early HCC. [source]

Possibilities and challenges in occupational injury surveillance of day laborers

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 2 2010
Sarah J. Lowry MPH
Abstract Background Day laborers in the US, comprised largely of undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America, suffer high rates of occupational injury according to recent estimates. Adequate surveillance methods for this highly transient, largely unregulated group do not currently exist. This study explores chart abstraction of hospital-based trauma registry records as a potential injury surveillance method for contingent workers and day laborers. We sought to determine the degree of completeness of work information in the medical records, and to identify day laborers and contingent workers to the extent possible. Methods Work-related injury cases from a hospital-based trauma registry (2001,2006) were divided by ethnicity (Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic origin) and presence of social security number (SSN: yes, no), resulting in four groups of cases. Medical records were abstracted for 40 cases from each group; each case was assigned values for the variables "day labor status" (yes, no, probably not, probable, unknown) and "employment type" (contingent, formal, unknown). Results Work information was missing for 60% of Hispanic cases lacking SSN, as compared with 33,47% of the other three groups. One "probable" day laborer was identified from the same group. Non-Hispanics with SSN were less frequently identified as contingent workers (5% as compared with 15,19%). Conclusions This method revealed severe limitations, including incomplete and inconsistent information in the trauma registry and medical records. Approaches to improve existing resources for use in surveillance systems are identified. The potential of an active surveillance approach at day labor hiring centers is also briefly discussed. Am. J. Ind. Med. 53:126,134 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Salmonella importance and current status of detection and surveillance methods

QUALITY ASSURANCE & SAFETY OF CROPS & FOOD, Issue 3 2009
Hanna-Leena Alakomi
Abstract Salmonella, a genus within Enterobacteriaceae, remains as an important human pathogen and it has been reported to be the most common food-borne bacterial disease in the world. Although majority of the Salmonella cases are sporadic, outbreaks occur frequently. Salmonella can be associated with many kinds of foods and the presence of Salmonella in ready-to-eat foods is considered significant regardless of the level of the contamination. Therefore isolation is carried out by enrichment culture of a defined weight or volume of the food (normally 25 g). The traditional and time-consuming detection and isolation of Salmonella spp. from food and feed utilizes a multistep protocol with nonselective pre-enrichment, followed by a selective enrichment step, isolation on selective agar media and a preliminary biochemical and serological confirmation. Several rapid methods have been developed to speed up the detection of Salmonella. This paper aims to give an overview of the occurrence and current status of Salmonella detection and surveillance methods. [source]