Disease Modeling and Analytics to inform Outbreak Preparedness, Response, Intervention, Mitigation, and Elimination in South Carolina (DMA-PRIME) - The purpose of the DMA-PRIME initiative is to save lives by increasing the ability of health organizations and communities to prepare for, and respond to, infectious disease outbreaks through a multi-pronged approach: 1) procurement and integration of informative data sources into proven infectious disease forecasting and outbreak analytic tools, 2) integration of these analytic tools into decision-support toolkits to inform public health response, and 3) enhancement of methods for visualizing data and communicating analytic results to decision makers and communities. This application is for Mandatory Component 1 and Optional Component 3. In close collaboration with our four implementing partners, comprising South Carolina’s (SC’s) two largest health care systems, Prisma Health and Medical University of South Carolina; Clemson Rural Health; and SC’s Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare, and in collaboration with SC’s Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC), we aligned programmatic activities around key short-term and intermediate period of performance outcomes noted in the NOFO. For Component 1, our outcomes will be 1.1) foundational infrastructure to improve response activities, 1.2) increased identification of key areas of focus during public health emergencies, and 1.3) connections with STLT jurisdictions and community partners that would benefit from support during public health emergencies. These outcomes will be achieved through working with institutional stakeholders to enhance collaboration by completing memoranda of understanding, data use agreements, and staffing plans; developing protocols for data procurement, analysis, and infectious disease modeling; strengthening connections with STLT decision makers and community stakeholders; and collaborating with CFA network partners. For Component 3, our period of performance outcomes will be: 3.1) increased identification and availability of promising data collection, analytic, decision support and data visualization approaches for testing in real-world settings; 3.2) increased and more effective integration of partnerships across sectors that support decision makers during public health emergencies using our developed analytic toolkits; 3.3) greater integration of disease modeling and outbreak analytics into practice in public health, health care, and private sector settings; and 3.4) increased availability of innovative modeling and analytic approaches rigorously tested in real world settings. These outcomes will be achieved through developing and integrating real-time infectious disease data, including electronic health records, wastewater, and digital trace data; and models for infectious disease forecasting and outbreak analytics, into decision-making toolkits to inform the public health response of our implementing partners and raise community awareness. The decision-making toolkits will be pilot tested in real-world settings for informing a) field-level interventions for testing, treatment, and vaccination, b) healthcare system and statewide disaster planning and response, and c) community awareness on individual risk and availability of healthcare services. Ultimately, the DMA-PRIME initiative aims to integrate innovative analytic approaches to inform and improve preparedness, response, intervention, mitigation, and elimination of infectious disease outbreaks. This ambitious effort is feasible as it builds on analytic frameworks and relationships cultivated during SC’s COVID-19 response. Our proposed approaches have been successfully implemented by our team to inform public health response natural experiment settings. Utilizing the strong relationships and trust cultivated between our partners throughout SC, our long-term objective is to broaden public health response to current and future infectious disease threats. We intend to work in close collaboration with CFA network partners to scale-up successful approaches on a national level.
