title: Enhancing disease surveillance with novel data streams: challenges and opportunities.
abstract: Novel data streams (NDS), such as web search data or social media updates, hold promise for enhancing the capabilities of public health surveillance. In this paper, we outline a conceptual framework for integrating NDS into current public health surveillance. Our approach focuses on two key questions: What are the opportunities for using NDS and what are the minimal tests of validity and utility that must be applied when using NDS? Identifying these opportunities will necessitate the involvement of public health authorities and an appreciation of the diversity of objectives and scales across agencies at different levels (local, state, national, international). We present the case that clearly articulating surveillance objectives and systematically evaluating NDS and comparing the performance of NDS to existing surveillance data and alternative NDS data is critical and has not sufficiently been addressed in many applications of NDS currently in the literature.
authors.affiliation: Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA.
authors.forename: Benjamin M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Althouse
authors.affiliation: Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA.
authors.forename: Samuel V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Scarpino
authors.affiliation: Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA.|The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren Ancel
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Meyers
authors.affiliation: San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA.
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Ayers
authors.affiliation: New Mexico Department of Health, Santa Fe, NM, USA.
authors.forename: Marisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bargsten
authors.affiliation: New Mexico Department of Health, Santa Fe, NM, USA.
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baumbach
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital Informatics Program, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: John S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Brownstein
authors.affiliation: Defense Systems and Analysis Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Clapham
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Derek At
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Cummings
authors.affiliation: Defense Systems and Analysis Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Del Valle
authors.affiliation: Virginia BioInformatics Institute and Department of Population Health Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eubank
authors.affiliation: Defense Systems and Analysis Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
authors.forename: Geoffrey
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fairchild
authors.affiliation: Influenza Division, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Lyn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Finelli
authors.affiliation: Defense Systems and Analysis Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Generous
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Dylan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: George
authors.affiliation: Chatham House, 10 St James's Square, London, SW1Y 4LE, UK.
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Harper
authors.affiliation: Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hébert-Dufresne
authors.affiliation: Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, NCEZID, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, San Juan, PR, USA.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Johansson
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Konty
authors.affiliation: Communicable Disease Dynamics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lipsitch
authors.affiliation: School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Milinovich
authors.affiliation: Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, NCEZID, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital Informatics Program, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Elaine O
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Nsoesie
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Donald R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Olson
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Paul
authors.affiliation: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
authors.forename: Philip M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Polgreen
authors.affiliation: Defense Systems and Analysis Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
authors.forename: Reid
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Priedhorsky
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, CH64 7TE, UK.|Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, NIHR, Liverpool, L69 7BE, UK.
authors.forename: Jonathan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Read
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Barraquer
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK.
authors.forename: Derek J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Google Inc., Mountain View, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stefansen
authors.affiliation: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Swerdlow
authors.affiliation: New Mexico Department of Health, Santa Fe, NM, USA.
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for the Modeling of Biological and Socio-technical Systems, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vespignani
authors.affiliation: Communicable Disease Dynamics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wesolowski
keywords: digital surveillance; disease surveillance; novel data streams