The Situational Awareness and Preparedness for Public Health Incidences and Reasoning Engines (SAPPHIRE) is a

semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and compu ...

-based

health information system Health informatics is the field of science and engineering that aims at developing methods and technologies for the acquisition, processing, and study of patient data, which can come from different sources and modalities, such as electronic hea ...

capable of tracking and evaluating situations and occurrences that may affect public health. It was developed in 2004 by Dr. Parsa Mirhaji at the

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) is a public academic health science center in Houston, Texas, United States. It was created in 1972 by The University of Texas System Board of Regents. It is located in the ...

using the Semantic Web technologies.

Technology

SAPPHIRE is based upon developing Semantic Web technologies — a set of formats and programming languages (such as the

Resource Description Framework The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard originally designed as a data model for metadata. It has come to be used as a general method for description and exchange of graph data. RDF provides a variety of ...

language and the

Web Ontology Language The Web Ontology Language (OWL) is a family of knowledge representation languages for authoring ontologies. Ontologies are a formal way to describe taxonomies and classification networks, essentially defining the structure of knowledge for vario ...

(OWL)) that find and analyze data on the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

to enable users to understand and utilize organized information online. The system is used to gather, organize and impart information on important happenings and events, assisting public health-care professionals to prepare and act. It permits data to be interpreted distinctly, meeting the specific needs of diverse industries, users and disciplines rather than a generalized, universal format. The SAPPHIRE system was developed by the Health Science Center using the RDF technologies developed by Oracle, Inc. and TopQuadrant, Inc.

Function

SAPPHIRE helps track specific incidences such as the spread and treatment of

influenza Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptom ...

, AIDS and related information. The system frequently gathers information from select public hospitals, emergency services and care providers and their electronic health records and information provided by medical professionals. The information is integrated and categorized - flu-related symptoms are analyzed for trends that may indicate probabilities of flu epidemics. Such data is transmitted to institutions such as the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georg ...

. SAPPHIRE's processes have also reduced the administrative burdens and inefficiencies at hospitals and clinics.

Usage after Hurricane Katrina

The University of Houston conducted a pilot test of SAPPHIRE in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005, which devastated the populations and infrastructures of southern

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Mis ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. Implemented swiftly within hours of mass evacuations, the SAPPHIRE system successfully monitored and analyzed public health information for the usage of government officials and services, who feared outbreaks of epidemics. Officials used hand-held computers to gather data from the evacuees and transmit directly to the SAPPHIRE database. SAPPHIRE was specifically used to analyze the health of the evacuees at the

Astrodome The NRG Astrodome, also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, is the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas. It was financed and assisted in development by Roy Hofheinz, mayor of Housto ...

Reliant Park NRG Park, formerly Reliant Park and Astrodomain, is a complex in Houston, named after the energy company NRG Energy. It is located on Kirby Drive at the South Loop West Freeway (I-610). This complex of buildings encompasses of land and consists ...

and the

George R. Brown Convention Center The George R. Brown Convention Center (GRB), opened on September 26, 1987, is located on the east side of Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The center was named for internationally recognized entrepreneur, engineer, civic leader, philan ...

. A PDA extension of SAPPHIRE enabled more than 300 volunteers, led by the UT School of Public Health, to collect and analyze critical health data. SAPPHIRE gathered information from nearly 9,000 confidential patient cases of the past to help services respond to the specific needs of the evacuees, helping to identify environment-specific vulnerabilities, prevalence and conditions for diseases and epidemics. SAPPHIRE was recorded to have assisted in identifying outbreaks of

gastrointestinal The gastrointestinal tract (GI tract, digestive tract, alimentary canal) is the tract or passageway of the digestive system that leads from the mouth to the anus. The GI tract contains all the major organs of the digestive system, in humans and ...

respiratory The respiratory system (also respiratory apparatus, ventilatory system) is a biological system consisting of specific organs and structures used for gas exchange in animals and plants. The anatomy and physiology that make this happen varies gre ...

diseases and

conjunctivitis Conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye, is inflammation of the outermost layer of the white part of the eye and the inner surface of the eyelid. It makes the eye appear pink or reddish. Pain, burning, scratchiness, or itchiness may occur. The ...

much sooner than previously possible.

References

External links

The KnowMED IncorporationParsa Mirhaji
at ''

Academia.edu Academia.edu is a for-profit open repository of academic articles free to read by visitors. Uploading and downloading is restricted to registered users. Additional features are accessible only as a paid subscription. Since 2016 various social ...

''. Public health and biosurveillance software University of Texas System

Technology

Function

Usage after Hurricane Katrina

See also

References

Further reading

External links