Does health service funding go where the need is? A prototype spatial access analysis for new urban contracts data.

Background: Much of spatial access research measures the proximity to health service locations. We advance this research by focusing on whether health service funding is within walkable reach of neighborhoods with high hardship. This is made possible by a new administrative data source: financial contracts data for those human services that are delivered by nonprofits under contract with the government.

Validation of a Machine Learning Model to Predict Childhood Lead Poisoning.

Importance: Childhood lead poisoning causes irreversible neurobehavioral deficits, but current practice is secondary prevention.

Objective: To validate a machine learning (random forest) prediction model of elevated blood lead levels (EBLLs) by comparison with a parsimonious logistic regression.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This prognostic study for temporal validation of multivariable prediction models used data from the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program of the Chicago Department of Public Health.

Machine-learned epidemiology: real-time detection of foodborne illness at scale.

Machine learning has become an increasingly powerful tool for solving complex problems, and its application in public health has been underutilized. The objective of this study is to test the efficacy of a machine-learned model of foodborne illness detection in a real-world setting. To this end, we built FINDER, a machine-learned model for real-time detection of foodborne illness using anonymous and aggregated web search and location data.

Evaluating the Implementation of a Twitter-Based Foodborne Illness Reporting Tool in the City of St. Louis Department of Health.

Foodborne illness is a serious and preventable public health problem affecting 1 in 6 Americans with cost estimates over $50 billion annually. Local health departments license and inspect restaurants to ensure food safety and respond to reports of suspected foodborne illness. The City of St.

Availability of Foodborne Illness Reporting Mechanisms for the Public on Local Health Department Web Sites.

Context: Foodborne illness is a serious and preventable public health problem, with high health and economic tolls in the United States. Local governments play an important role in food safety, with local health departments (LHDs) responsible for licensing and inspecting restaurants. Foodborne illness complaints from the public result in identification of more serious and critical food safety violations than regularly scheduled inspections; however, few people report foodborne illness.

Using Twitter to Identify and Respond to Food Poisoning: The Food Safety STL Project.

Context: Foodborne illness affects 1 in 4 US residents each year. Few of those sickened seek medical care or report the illness to public health authorities, complicating prevention efforts. Citizens who report illness identify food establishments with more serious and critical violations than found by regular inspections.

A bright future: innovation transforming public health in Chicago.

Big cities continue to be centers for innovative solutions and services. Governments are quickly identifying opportunities to take advantage of this energy and revolutionize the means by which they deliver services to the public. The governmental public health sector is rapidly evolving in this respect, and Chicago is an emerging example of some of the changes to come.

Tweeting for and against public health policy: response to the Chicago Department of Public Health's electronic cigarette Twitter campaign.

Background: In January 2014, the Chicago City Council scheduled a vote on local regulation of electronic cigarettes as tobacco products. One week prior to the vote, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) released a series of messages about electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) through its Twitter account. Shortly after the messages, or tweets, were released, the department's Twitter account became the target of a "Twitter bomb" by Twitter users sending more than 600 tweets in one week against the proposed regulation.

Health department use of social media to identify foodborne illness - Chicago, Illinois, 2013-2014.

An estimated 55 million to 105 million persons in the United States experience acute gastroenteritis caused by foodborne illness each year, resulting in costs of $2-$4 billion annually. Many persons do not seek treatment, resulting in underreporting of the actual number of cases and cost of the illnesses. To prevent foodborne illness, local health departments nationwide license and inspect restaurants and track and respond to foodborne illness complaints.