US DHS awards biosurveillance contract to Accenture

Accenture Federal Services has been awarded a contract by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to help the Office of Health Affairs (OHA) enhance its biosurveillance capabilities using social media analytics.

Under the one-year $3m contract, Accenture will assist in improving data sharing and collaboration between OHA and its partners.

The company and OHA will develop a social media analytics pilot that will manage, link and analyze data from social media networks in real time.

The social media analytics pilot will better inform and protect the public in the event of a national health emergency including infectious disease outbreak or a biological attack.

Accenture’s Public Safety agency work lead John Matchette said, "Rapidly collecting and understanding what information is being shared will help OHA meet its mission to detect and respond to potential threats to national health security."

The contract also involves developing a pilot programme aimed to assist OHA better predict, mitigate, protect citizens or respond to potential crises in real time by receiving data from social networking and social media.

Biosurveillance is intended to monitor public health trends and unusual occurrences, while relying on pre-existing, real-time health data.

The Office of Health Affairs is responsible for providing health and medical expertise to prepare for, respond to and recover from any hazard impacting the nation’s health security which include biological threats.