EDDi - 1 Case Study: An Epidemic of Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome in Hamburg

EDDi Print Manual - An Epidemic of Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome in Hamburg

Summary:
Building on a problem-based self-study approach, EDDi participants will be introduced to the principles and practices of infectious disease epidemiology as well as concepts related to the investigation of disease outbreaks, with particular focus on:

1. Describing infectious disease events and evaluating local outbreak scenarios
2. Learning about basic methods of epidemiological outbreak investigation, study designs, and tools of epidemiology (e.g., epidemiological curves, outbreak maps, technical terms)
3. Interpreting and recognizing associations between outbreak events and relevant influencing factors by applying basic techniques of infectious disease epidemiology (especially descriptive methods)
4. Making informed decisions in outbreak investigation based on epidemiological evidence
5. Extra: Getting to know the structure of the German disease surveillance and reporting system as well as background information on the Hanseatic city of Hamburg
    

Preparation of the Table Top Exercise

Resources
1 EDDi Case Study: Description of the case scenario including tasks
2 EDDi Investigation Notebook: Reference materials relevant to the case study
3 EDDi Solution Guide: Guide for facilitators including solutions

Approximate time (classroom teaching set-up)
Approx. 2.5-3 hours (estimate) = approx. four course units á 45 minutes;
the course units may be spread over two sessions á 1.5 hours

Welcome Tutorial and Epidemiological Cheat Sheet
As the Table Top Exercise requires a basic understanding of infectious disease epidemiology concepts and terminology, refreshing some background knowledge through the EDDi Welcome Tutorial is recommended, either individually or in small groups. There is a total of six educational videos to prepare for the different tasks of the exercise. The tutorial can be given to students as preparatory homework and could be further supplemented with additional questions. In addition, students may be advised to familiarize themselves with the Epidemiology Cheat Sheet and bring a copy.

Materials needed
Although extensive, we advise printing the EDDi Case Study and EDDi Investigation Notebook (one set per group). The printouts may be reused provided that all tasks are solved by the students on an extra sheet. A calculator is needed for some of the tasks.

Teaching Facilitators
To facilitate the exercise, we recommend having one facilitator (e.g., lecturer, tutor, experienced student) per working group who can assist with any problems. For each facilitator, we recommend providing one EDDi Solution Guide. If this is not possible, one solution guide can be given to each group to assist with any questions or problems.

Workflow
#1 Make sure you have completed all preparations and all printouts are available.
#2 Before starting the exercise, explain the overall outline of the exercise (learning objectives, resources needed, time to complete the exercise) and assign the course to working groups (3-5 individuals and, if possible, one facilitator per group). Each group shall be provided with one EDDi Case Study and one EDDi Investigation Notebook printout. The Case Study provides the main storyline and tasks and points to important reference materials in the Investigation Notebook. The groups will then work on the exercise independently.
#3 During the exercise, assistance can be sought through the facilitators or the Solution Guide. Make sure to keep an eye on the time!
#4 The exercise should be closed with a final discussion and exchange of findings and experiences (approx. 15-20 minutes). To learn more about the real outbreak event, further reading materials can be found in the Investigation Notebook and shared with the class.

Extra: EDDi Artwork Table Top Exercise
Artwork by Annabell Koenen-Rindfrey, licensed under CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
The artwork was developed using Affinity Designer 1.9.9 (iPad version).
Epidemiological trends by Juliane Boenecke, licensed under CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Graphs were developed using software R Studio (Version 1.0.136),
packages rgdal, sp, ggplot2, ggsave, readr and base.

If you would like to revise, rewrite, or build a new narrative upon this case study, all materials are available under an open license.