In this final message from ISDS, we would like to thank all of you for your many years of dedicated collaboration, your can-do spirit, and your willingness to push others to create a shared space for enhancing and strengthening public health surveillance. 

When I first started at a local health department in 2003, I saw nurses spend hours each day highlighting lines of data on faxed pieces of paper from hospitals who sometimes voluntarily shared lists of their emergency chief complaints with public health so that we could estimate the number of people presenting with a select group of symptoms. Those of us working in the field who were fortunate enough to have the funds and time to attend the annual ISDS conferences, took that opportunity to swap contact information with each other so that we had someone to call and bounce ideas off of throughout the year, until the next conference. 

Fast forward to 2019, we have a coordinated, comprehensive community that regularly shares lessons learned, openly discusses challenges we face, and assists each other whenever possible. Data science has grown exponentially in that time, and the opportunities for public health surveillance have exploded-all great advances for those of us who recognize the importance of being able to measure what is happening in our surroundings. From all of us at ISDS, please know that your surveillance community appreciates you and wants you to stay connected and engaged.

 

I personally want to thank the ISDS Board of Directors and share my sincerest gratitude to Joanne Kelly, Catherine Tong, Emilie Lamb and Mark Krumm for their team work. This small but mighty group managed to accomplish several big achievements with limited resources, something everyone in public health excels at on a regular basis. They have always tried to do what is best for the members, and I was very grateful to be adopted into this work family.

 

Over the recent weeks as we announced our closing and made preparations to move groups to other agencies, we received several positive and heartwarming messages about the ISDS community. As we close, we invite you to reflect on your contributions to ISDS and enjoy what others had to share in the video below.

 

Sincerely,

 

Shandy Dearth,

Executive Director

ISDS