Theresa Pardo, deputy director at CTG, was one of 17 U.S. and 15 Chinese researchers and government practitioners to present at the First US-China Infectious Disease Informatics and Biosurveillance Workshop (IBD 2008), recently held in Beijing, China. IBD 2008 was jointly hosted by the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the University of Arizona.

IDB 2008 brought researchers and practitioners from both countries together to engage in discussions of lessons learned about surveillance for large events such as SARS and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The workshop was designed to promote a knowledge exchange between U.S. and Chinese public health information researchers, public health agencies, and managers, creating an intellectual forum to bring together key infectious disease informatics experts and to contribute to the development of global disease surveillance networks.

Theresa presented on the findings from CTG’s research in intergovernmental information sharing, which includes case studies on the West Nile virus outbreaks in the United States. This research, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, focuses on the critical factors and processes involved in sharing information across boundaries of organizations and how technical and social factors interact to influence the effectiveness of these efforts. The findings from CTG’s research are critical as public health officials around the world are turning to information sharing as a key strategy for maximizing the value of information in providing services, responding to problems, measuring performance, and engaging citizens.

Lei Zheng, graduate assistant at CTG and a doctoral student in public administration at UAlbany, also participated as a speaker at the workshop. Lei’s research is exploring the utility of the CTG information sharing model in understanding information sharing efforts within the product safety inspection agencies in China.

CTG government fellow, Valerie Gregg, was a member of the organizing team for the workshop and also facilitated the closing session focused on identifying next steps for building a set of ongoing relationships and knowledge exchanges as part of the global disease surveillance networks.