Mapping real-time respiratory microbiology information to inform health outcomes.
Most hospitals and community pathogen providers in Victoria use pathogen molecular diagnostic tests that test for multiple potential pathogens for each sample. This has meant we have access to population level data regarding the distribution of many common pathogens across time and place.
We can de-identify and collate these data to improve our understanding of how tested pathogens circulate each year, as was done in Lin, C et al. 2020.1 Additionally, the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates how PCR results can be used in conjunction with a range of geographic information systems to track disease spread in real time.2
You can follow SnotWatch on Twitter for updates on the project.
SNOTWATCH will use multiple hospital and primary care health data, to upload de-identified laboratory results in real time. This will create a large and rich dataset that will enable epidemiologists to analyse a broad spectrum of potential pathogens and corresponding patterns of healthcare presentations using spatiotemporal statistical methodologies with completely de-identified, non-linked data.
We will be able to:
Collaborative analysis with groups in different locations such as Queensland or Utah [USA] will compare observed viral incidence and related illnesses and assess the broader applicability of the SNOTWATCH framework.
Professor Jim Buttery
Head of Infection and Immunity & Director of Research, MCRI |
Ms Rana Sawires
PhD student, Monash University, MCRI |
Ms Deniz Akin
Research assistant, MCRI
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