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dc.contributor.advisorMenzies, Nicolas
dc.contributor.authorMcGough, Sarah
dc.date.accessioned2019-12-12T08:36:24Z
dash.embargo.terms2019-11-01
dc.date.created2019-05
dc.date.issued2019-05-14
dc.date.submitted2019
dc.identifier.citationMcGough, Sarah. 2019. Anticipating Outbreaks: Predictive Modeling to Improve Infectious Disease Surveillance. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
dc.identifier.urihttp://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42029601*
dc.description.abstractRapid and effective responses to disease outbreaks require the ability to accurately detect and anticipate changing dynamics of an outbreak over time. However, disease surveillance is frequently undermined by extended delays between symptom onset and official case reports, often due to complex and multi-tiered disease reporting and communication systems interacting at national, state, and city levels. Timeliness of reporting and response may be further exacerbated in settings that experience resource constraints. Digital data streams that are available in real- or near-real-time have the potential to complement or improve traditional disease surveillance by quickly and continuously capturing signals of population health that may be meaningful for disease tracking and forecasting. In addition, digital data are trending towards being made freely and publicly available through public servers and APIs, which remove barriers to data access and open up avenues for predictive modeling independent of resource level. Further, methodologies that focus on data-driven and self-adaptive learning can yield flexible and readily-implementable models for the public health sector. Focusing on a collection of inputs, including Google search trends, Twitter, news reports, and satellite weather data, and employing statistical and machine learning methodologies to process, synthesize, and analyze these data, I present several applications of disease detection and forecasting models, which are developed as real-time decision support tools. Each project uses, as a case study, a mosquito-borne disease outbreak, which requires anticipation on the scale of weeks or months to effectively interrupt transmission. Across case studies, I describe flexible models functional at both large (e.g. national) and small (e.g. city-level) spatial scales. Over the course of this thesis, I move towards increasingly more generalizable modeling techniques such that learning from input data becomes more autonomous, requires less human input, and can be applied to a wider range of systems (e.g. surveillance bodies, diseases). In all cases, I show how predictions can fill a critical time gap between case onset and case reporting, with the goal of supporting early warnings and outbreak anticipation within public health surveillance systems.
dc.description.sponsorshipPopulation Health Sciences
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.language.isoen
dash.licenseLAA
dc.subjectpublic health
dc.subjectepidemiology
dc.subjectpredictive modeling
dc.subjectinfectious disease
dc.subjectinfectious disease epidemiology
dc.subjectpublic health surveillance
dc.subjectdisease surveillance
dc.titleAnticipating Outbreaks: Predictive Modeling to Improve Infectious Disease Surveillance
dc.typeThesis or Dissertation
dash.depositing.authorMcGough, Sarah
dash.embargo.until2019-11-01
dc.date.available2019-12-12T08:36:24Z
thesis.degree.date2019
thesis.degree.grantorGraduate School of Arts & Sciences
thesis.degree.grantorGraduate School of Arts & Sciences
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy
dc.contributor.committeeMemberLipsitch, Marc
dc.contributor.committeeMemberSantillana, Mauricio
dc.type.materialtext
thesis.degree.departmentPopulation Health Sciences
thesis.degree.departmentPopulation Health Sciences
dash.identifier.vireo
dash.author.emailsfm341@gmail.com


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