CDC's New Influenza Tracking Prototype Honored With SAS Enterprise Intelligence Award.

Seasonal Flu and Potentially Avian Flu Could Be Tracked More Effectively with New Influenza Data Summary Prototype

WASHINGTON -- SAS, the leader in business intelligence, honored the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today with the 2007 Enterprise Intelligence Award for Government for the prototype of its Influenza Data Summary (IDS). Powered by SAS([R]) business intelligence, the IDS could provide a unified view of influenza activity in the United States, gathering data from numerous sources to help users track flu activity and possibly identify flu outbreaks.

Effective monitoring of disease activity is crucial to protecting public health. The Influenza Data Summary (IDS) will allow public health officials to use data from a variety of sources for the best available view of flu activity in their community. Data can be viewed at the national, state and county levels in whatever customized reports the user finds most valuable. Ultimately, the IDS tool could enhance public health's ability to monitor influenza activity across the country.

The Influenza Data Summary (IDS) was developed using SAS Business Intelligence software to gather, provide access to, and display data in a common environment. In addition to standard data sources such as reports from the Influenza Sentinel Provider Surveillance Network, the US World Health Organization Collaboration Laboratory System, and the National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System, the IDS also incorporates new real-time electronic health data through CDC's BioSense program. BioSense is a national program intended to improve the nation's capabilities for conducting near real-time bio-surveillance, enabling health situational awareness through access to existing data from healthcare organizations across the country.

Currently the Influenza Data Summary (IDS) is a prototype. It will be shared and evaluated with state and local public health partners soon and is planned to be available for use during the 2007/2008 Influenza season. The IDS tool provides interactive maps and graphs from disparate data sources and allows users to compare data from multiple sources at the same time, in the same format. The IDS also includes customizable dashboards so that users can create the most useful configurations for their needs. It enables a rapid comparison of standardized influenza information across time and geography.

"Not only is the Influenza Data Summary prototype an innovative use of analytical technology, it could be critical in helping public health officials handle some of our most feared health threats," said Tom Mazich, Vice President, SAS Government Operations. "We are honored to present the CDC with this award."

The Enterprise Intelligence Award for Government was created to honor government organizations that best illustrate the use of SAS to enable decision makers across the organization to act with the highest level of confidence and knowledge to meet defined goals. The three other finalists for the 2007 award were the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia (CSOSA), the Wisconsin Department of Revenue and Protech's solution for the Arkansas Department of Child Support Enforcement.

About CDC

CDC's mission is to promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability. CDC, as the sentinel for the health of people in the United States and throughout the world, strives to protect people's health and safety, provide reliable health information, and improve health through strong partnerships.

About SAS

SAS is the leader in business intelligence and analytical software and services. Customers at 43,000 sites use SAS software to improve performance through insight from data, resulting in faster, more accurate business decisions; more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; compliance with governmental regulations; research breakthroughs; and better products and processes. Only SAS offers leading data integration, storage, analytics and business intelligence applications within a comprehensive enterprise intelligence platform. Since 1976, SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW([R]). www.sas.com

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. [R] indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.(c) 2007