The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, has awarded $17.5 million to a coalition led by researchers at UC San Diego to develop innovative tools and networks to respond rapidly to emerging disease outbreaks. Richard Carpiano, a professor and public health researcher in UC Riverside’s School of Public Policy, is among the team of investigators that received the grant. 

The project, which partners with the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency, includes experts from UCR, UCLA, UCSF, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and University of Washington. 

The title of the grant, which was issued to UC San Diego Qualcomm Institute, is “Resilient Shield: A Network for Outbreak Data Integration and Modeling to Support Rapid Public Health Action. Funding begins September 30 and runs for five years.” 

Data sources will include not only molecular epidemiology—which can provide early identification of variants of concern, transmission rate estimates, and information on active growing clusters—but also wastewater and air surveillance; exposure notification systems (smartphones and contact tracing); internet searches and posts; legally available clinical data; and simulations.

Pilot testing will include communities and populations in San Diego County that have been historically left behind, including the ongoing Hepatitis A outbreak in persons experiencing homelessness, HIV outbreak clusters (for example, in people who use drugs), as well as retrospective analyses of responses to disease agents like SARS-COV2, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus, particularly in vulnerable populations.

The team will measure its success by its ability to provide useful and timely modeling and outbreak data visualizations to inform public health decisions. The work in San Diego is also intended to improve analytics, modeling, and forecasting in health jurisdictions across the U.S.

Carpiano said his role involves helping “formulate questions, challenges, and assets that will serve as the basis for the modeling approaches employed through this project,” as well as identifying data sources. He will also help interpret findings through a lens of health disparities based on race-ethnicity, income, education, and geography, then make implementation and policy recommendations. Finally, he will help train and advise postdoctoral fellows and graduate students involved with the research.

 

“Applying cutting-edge analytic techniques to such infectious disease threats is beneficial only if the findings can be put to use in informing practical and effective responses needed to minimize the impacts of outbreaks,” Carpiano said.