Subject: [SciPol 482] Biosense or Biononsense

From: "MsRedSonya" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2007 06:33:20 -0000

Biosense or Biononsense
Katherine Eban
The Scientist 21 (4), 32 (2007)
http://www.the-scientist.com/article/daily/52963/

..."This false alert came from the government-funded computer program,
Biosense. The complex program, which culls electronic health data from
350 of the nation's urban hospitals as well as veterans' hospitals and
defense department facilities, comes after a string of costly, and
never fully realized computer ventures before it. But three years into
its development, with a price tag of around $230 million (on top of
millions more spent on unsuccessful systems before it), it is unclear
as to exactly what the program can accomplish. CDC officials
acknowledge Biosense's shortcomings. The program was initially
designed to detect the earliest possible symptoms from a bioterror
attack. Instead, it lacks real-time capability and has issued a stream
of false alarms that would be comical were the stakes not so high.
"..."Last year, in testimony before a Senate subcommittee overseeing
the national response to bioterror, two experts urged senators not to
spend "another penny" on Biosense until the program's goals, and how
to achieve them, became clear. Nicole Lurie, codirector for Public
Health at the Rand Corporation's Center for Domestic and International
Health Security, stated that among local public health departments,
the program has another name: Biononsense."..."Congress has responded
with funding. In 2002, it passed the Public Health Surveillance Act,
which authorized $1 billion for the CDC to distribute to states for
public health preparedness. Included was a mandate that states develop
some kind of electronic means of monitoring emerging symptoms, but
there were few guidelines and no national strategy. "..."Nonetheless,
the problem is "not just technology," says Yasnoff. It's the mentality
and resources of low-performing organizations. "Not only do public
health agencies not know anything," he says, "but they don't have the
resources they need if they did." "..."Biosense was born soon after
the 2003 State of the Union address, in which President Bush announced
Bioshield, a $6 billion initiative to jumpstart the development and
production of vaccines and treatments for bioterror agents. This
torrent of money was just the beginning. Biowatch - a series of
environmental sensors to detect the release of bioterror agents, and
Biosense followed. Bioshield has foundered publicly. Last December,
the Bush administration cancelled an $877 million contract with
VaxGen, a company slated to produce 75 million doses of an anthrax
vaccine after it had failed to make critical progress. The company had
been selected even though it had never successfully produced a single
drug. Comparatively, Biowatch and Biosense appear to be making
progress. The CDC projects that by year's end, Biosense will be
receiving and analyzing data from 1,400 of the nation's hospitals.
Some local health officials say they believe the program is "very
effective" and should continue to be expanded. But others question
what, if anything, the program actually does. "..."With a
whistleblower-fueled investigation underway in the Senate's finance
committee into the CDC's oversight of at least $6 billion in grants
for emergency preparedness, many public health experts and oversight
officials fear that this unprecedented investment has been squandered.
As ranking member on the finance committee Senator Chuck Grassley (R-
Iowa) says, "The bottom line is we don't know what exactly has been
purchased with the grant money. Like the saying goes, 'A billion here,
a billion there pretty soon adds up to real money'." "

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