National Biosurveillance Integration System

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National Biosurveillance Integration
System (NBIS)
Prepared for Biosurveillance Information
Exchange Working Group February 22, 2006
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National Policy for Biodefense

• April 2004, The National Policy for Bio-defense
  (HSPD-10)
• directly tasks the Secretary of Homeland
  Security to
• establish a National Biosurveillance Group
  (NBSG) that capitalizes upon existing
  surveillance systems focused on, respectively,
  human disease, food, agriculture, water,
  meteorology, and the environment. This group
  will collate, integrate, and analyze the
  information from these systems with relevant
  threat and intelligence information and
  disseminate this all-source information to
  appropriate Federal departments and agencies.

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NBIS Mission

• The National Biosurveillance Group provides
  decision-makers early recognition of biological
  events of potential national significance, to
  include natural disease outbreaks, accidental or
  intentional use of biological agents, and
  emergent biohazards through the acquisition,
  integration, analysis, and dissemination of
  information from existing human disease, food,
  agriculture, water, meteorological, and
  environmental surveillance systems and relevant
  threat and intelligence information.  The
  resulting improved information sharing and
  enhanced situational awareness facilitates
  national decision-making to enable timely
  response. 

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Key Terms

• NBIS - National Biosurveillance Integration
  System the overarching program
• NBSG - National Biosurveillance Group the DHS
  personnel and Interagency SMEs that operate the
  National Biosurveillance Integration Center.
• NBIC - National Biosurveillance Integration
  Center the DHS facility housing the NBSG
• NBIS Lite a prototype information technology
  (IT) system
• NBIS v2.0 a robust IT system designed to
  support the comprehensive information and
  knowledge requirements of the NBIS Program.
• NMA - NBIS Member Agencies those Departments,
  Agencies, and Organizations internal and external
  to the DHS participating in the NBIS through
  information sharing and analysis.
• GBSE - Global Biological Security Environment
  the aggregate of biological conditions and
  related factors that comprise or pose an extant
  or emergent hazard to the health of human,
  animal, and plant life particularly with respect
  to the United States and its interests. Also
  includes non-biological indicators that may
  signal a potential or emerging biological
  condition that threatens such.
• BCOP - Biosurveillance Common Operating Picture
  the graphical representation of the GBSE derived
  from the composite feeds of NBISv2

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Network-centric Approach

• Networked biosurveillance community will greatly
  enhance situational awareness of all members and
  supported decision-makers
• Shared situational awareness will improve
  community understanding of bio-hazards, their
  etiologies and their markers
• Informed network members are able to perform
  their detection functions more effectively
• Develop an analytic rhythm that produces
  cooperative, synergistic, system-wide
  surveillance
• Cross-domain analysis will improve detection time
  and surveillance fidelity

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NBIS IT
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Hazards of Concern

• Human Pathogens
• High Mortality
• Ease of transmission
• Economic Impact
• Psychological Impact
• Animal Pathogens
• Ease of transmission to Humans
• Ease of transmission within and between species
• Economic Impact
• Plant Pathogens
• Economic concerns
• Human / Animal Health Concerns
• Environmental, Water Pathogens
• Human/ Animal Health Concerns
• Economic Concern
• Psychological Concern

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Enhanced Surveillance
Domain Detection Thresholds
(e.g. intelligence,
syndromic
surveillance, etc.)
72 hrs
Agency A
Detection Time
48 hrs
Agency B
Single domain threshold
Agency C
reached informs all members
24 hrs
NBIS Detection Window
Event Progression
NBIS Objectives
Multi
-
domain cueing can reduce detection

• Improved info sharing

threshold below independent domain thresholds

• Reduced detection time

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DOES NOT Involve

• Event Response
• Agency roles are defined under the National
  Response Plan (NRP)
• Attribution Terrorist Act
• The FBI has this role
• Represent a parallel reporting structure outside
  the NRP
• Replace the role of any interagency partner
• Include information on individuals
• Completely eliminate uncertainty in the
  biosurveillance equation

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Implementation Phases

• Phased approach that builds capability
• Avian disease oriented initially for current
  threat
• Phases
• Phase 1 Watch center active (Nov Dec 2005)
• Phase 2 NBIS Lite (Dec 2005 Jun 2006)
• Daily General Disease Reports
• Avian Flu Supplement
• Weekly AI Summary
• Bio Informational Notices
• Web based portal for the NBSG
• Phase 3 NBIS-V2 ( Jul 2006)
• All hazards taxonomy
• Robust information feeds
• Limited decision support capability
• Analyst chat
• BCOP

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NBSG Staffing

• 24/7 Watch Desk within the HSOC
• Agency representatives assigned to NBSG will
• Assist in analysis specific to their agencys
  information
• Provide insight into the capabilities and
  operations of their agency
• Facilitate coordination and 2-way information
  sharing
• NMA representatives should be
• Conversant in all major operational aspects of
  their agency
• Possess analytic expertise in their agencys area
  of focus
• Capable of working in a dynamic interagency
  environment
• 40 personnel total

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Current Reports

• Daily General Disease Report
• CONUS and OCONUS
• Supplemental Avian Influenza Update
• Weekly Avian Influenza SITREP
• Global
• Confirmations include OIE/WHO/EU Labs, Military
  Labs and Local Government agencies
• Geographic expansion
• US Border Surveillance
• Biological Event Informational Notices

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Avian Influenza SITREP

• Weekly SITREP Product is intended for the
  Secretary and NBSG
• All classification levels
• Reflects global tactical tracking of both
  suspected and confirmed Avian Influenza in
  animals and humans
• Represents input from multiple NBSG partner
  agencies and approximately one million open
  source materials scanned per day
• Early indication and warning is the goal

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Example Product Avian Influenza SITREP (2 of 3)
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QUESTIONS?