Purpose To evaluate the clinical safety and natural history of active surveillance (AS) for incidentally diagnosed small renal mass (SRM). Materials and Methods We analyzed prospective data for patients who underwent AS for SRM. From 2010 to 2016, 37 SRMs of less than 3 cm were registered. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging were used for initial diagnosis and CT, ultrason...

It is important to assess the suitability of sentinel sites for human disease; however, there have been few publications documenting the process of formal evaluation. We describe an approach to examining the representativeness of a single sentinel site employed for campylobacteriosis surveillance and source attribution, utilizing a selection of data sources and statistical comparisons of demogr...

BACKGROUND Lack of surveillance systems and accurate data impede evidence-based decisions on treatment and prevention of enteric fever, caused by Salmonella Typhi/Paratyphi. The WHO coordinates a global Invasive Bacterial-Vaccine Preventable Diseases (IB-VPD) surveillance network but does not monitor enteric fever. We evaluated the feasibility and sustainability of integrating enteric fever sur...

Participants (N = 115) performed a computerized task under 3 conditions: no supervision, direct human supervision, and computer monitoring. Differences in performance across groups was evaluated using summary performance measures and detailed analyses of group performance over time. There was a statistically significant difference in performance quality but not performance quantity between the ...

Modern technology provides a great amount of information. But for computer monitoring systems, we need to reduce the number of variables to one or two parameters, which express the quality and/or security of the whole system. This paper presents a principle for synthesizing measurements of multiple system parameters into a single parameter and the different forms of its quality functions, and s...

The laboratory plays a major role in surveillance, including confirming the start and end of an outbreak. Knowing the causative agent for an outbreak informs the development of response strategies and management plans for a public health event. However, issues and challenges may arise that limit the effectiveness or efficiency of laboratories in surveillance. This case study applies a systemati...