title: Public Health Intelligence: Learning From the Ebola Crisis.
abstract: Today's public health crises, as exemplified by the Ebola outbreak, lead to dramatic calls to action that typically include improved electronic monitoring systems to better prepare for, and respond to, similar occurrences in the future. Even a preliminary public health informatics evaluation of the current Ebola crisis exposes the need for enhanced coordination and sharing of trustworthy public health intelligence. We call for a consumer-centric model of public health intelligence and the formation of a national center to guide public health intelligence gathering and synthesis. Sharing accurate and actionable information with government agencies, health care practitioners, policymakers, and, critically, the general public, will mark a shift from doing public health surveillance on people to doing public health surveillance for people.
authors.affiliation: Timothy Jay Carney is with the Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is the founding partner of the Global Health Equity Intelligence Collaborative, LLC, Durham, NC. David Jay Weber is with the School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
authors.forename: Timothy Jay
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Carney
authors.affiliation: Timothy Jay Carney is with the Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is the founding partner of the Global Health Equity Intelligence Collaborative, LLC, Durham, NC. David Jay Weber is with the School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
authors.forename: David Jay
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Weber
mesh_terms: D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control*; D019142:Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D011635:Public Health Administration; D040442:Public Health Informatics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D062486:Public Health Surveillance / Q000379:methods*