title: Integrating genome-based informatics to modernize global disease monitoring, information sharing, and response.
abstract: The rapid advancement of genome technologies holds great promise for improving the quality and speed of clinical and public health laboratory investigations and for decreasing their cost. The latest generation of genome DNA sequencers can provide highly detailed and robust information on disease-causing microbes, and in the near future these technologies will be suitable for routine use in national, regional, and global public health laboratories. With additional improvements in instrumentation, these next- or third-generation sequencers are likely to replace conventional culture-based and molecular typing methods to provide point-of-care clinical diagnosis and other essential information for quicker and better treatment of patients. Provided there is free-sharing of information by all clinical and public health laboratories, these genomic tools could spawn a global system of linked databases of pathogen genomes that would ensure more efficient detection, prevention, and control of endemic, emerging, and other infectious disease outbreaks worldwide.
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Frank M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Aarestrup
authors.forename: Eric W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Detter
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gerner-Smidt
authors.forename: Matthew W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Gilmour
authors.forename: Dag
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Harmsen
authors.forename: Rene S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Hendriksen
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hewson
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Heymann
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Johansson
authors.forename: Kashef
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ijaz
authors.forename: Paul S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Keim
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koopmans
authors.forename: Annelies
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kroneman
authors.forename: Danilo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lo Fo Wong
authors.forename: Ole
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lund
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Palm
authors.forename: Pathom
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sawanpanyalert
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sobel
authors.forename: Jørgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schlundt
mesh_terms: D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D016208:Databases, Factual; D023281:Genomics; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D020407:Internet; D011159:Population Surveillance