[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 86 (Wednesday, May 5, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24705-24706]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-10586]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[60 Day-10-10CV]
Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and
Recommendations
In compliance with the requirement of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 for opportunity for public comment on
proposed data collection projects, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) will publish periodic summaries of proposed projects.
Alternatively, to obtain a copy of the data collection plans and
instrument, call 404-639-5960 and send comments to Maryam I. Daneshvar,
CDC Reports Clearance Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, NE., MS-D74, Atlanta,
Georgia 30333; comments may also be sent by e-mail to [email protected].
Comments are invited on (a) Whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of
the agency, including whether the information shall have a practical
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the
proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality,
utility, and clarify of the information to be collected; and (d) ways
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents,
including through the use of information technology. Written comments
should be received within 60 days of this notice.
Proposed Project
Early Aberration Reporting System (EARS) Registration Module--New--
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID)
(proposed), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Background and Brief Description
To support two of CDC's main priority areas: (1) Improving CDC's
support for state and local health departments, and (2) strengthening
surveillance and epidemiology, CDC is requesting approval from the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to improve the Early Aberration
Reporting System (EARS) by collecting data from individuals who request
a download of EARS from the CDC website.
The Early Aberration Reporting System, developed within the
Division of Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response, is a web-enabled
tool that analyzes public health surveillance data using methods that
detect abnormal trends that could possibly indicate an outbreak of
infectious disease. The local public health professionals manage the
entire tool and can implement the defaults or can adjust the tool in
order to meet their local needs. The goal of this process is to assist
public health professionals in the early identification of outbreaks of
disease as well as bioterrorism events. EARS is used to assess whether
the current number of reported cases of an event is higher than usual.
The term syndromic surveillance is used to describe surveillance
that uses health-related data that precede diagnosis and that signals a
sufficient probability of a case or an outbreak of infectious disease
to warrant further public health response. Syndromic surveillance
systems are used by state, local, national and international health
departments to monitor syndrome-based (e.g., case information collected
in emergency departments (EDs) and diagnostic data sources for early
detection of outbreaks and other public health events). More recently
these systems are used during public health responses to provide more
rapid near real-time situational awareness regarding the health status
of the target population. EARS was the first software platform to
support local syndromic surveillance systems. EARS has been designed
and used to monitor syndromic data from emergency departments, 911
calls, physician office data, school and business absenteeism, over-
the-counter drug sales, laboratory testing and results data and
reportable disease surveillance systems. In the past several years,
EARS systems have been integral in the local public health surveillance
arsenal. EARS has been used at events such as the Beijing Summer
Olympics; multiple
[[Page 24706]]
Superbowls (football) and World Series (baseball); the political
conventions of both major US political parties; and the Presidential
Inauguration (2009).
Today, EARS is a highly successful and sustainable system and has
over 200 users at the Federal, State, local, and international levels.
These users include international Ministries of Health and domestic
state and local public health departments. Additionally, EARS detection
methods have been integrated in well-known surveillance platforms such
as BioSense at CDC, ESSENSE at Johns Hopkins, NAMRD at US Department of
Defense, and Emergint at Northrop Grumman.
EARS is widely-accepted and easily sustainable due to its being
free to all end users, the capacity to use multiple forms of data,
flexibility and user-driven design and maintenance. EARS is a service
provided by CDC as share-ware and is available by download at no cost
from the CDC Web site http://www.bt.cdc.gov/surveillance/EARS.
In an effort to continue to improve and enhance EARS, the
collection of registration information is needed to track users and
organizations to assist in future needs assessments. Requiring the
users to register will provide CDC with contact information (i.e., e-
mail addresses) to use for broadcast e-mails regarding new releases for
upgrades and enhancements; track the number of users, the download
frequency, and the type of data that users will monitor with EARS; and
solicit users for feedback for future upgrades and enhancements. CDC
estimates that there will be 150 respondents registered for EARS. Each
respondent will need an average of 10 minutes to complete the EARS
registration form which leads to a total public burden of 25 hours.
There is no cost to respondents to participate in this program.
Estimate of Annualized Burden Hours
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Number of Average burden
Respondents Number of responses per per response Total burden
respondents respondent (in hours) (in hours)
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Users........................................... 150 1 10/60 25
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Dated: April 21, 2010.
Maryam I. Daneshvar,
Acting Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2010-10586 Filed 5-4-10; 8:45 am]
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