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Four Ways BugSeq Enables Public Health Laboratories to Leverage Informatics Data and Bolster Preparedness by Adopting Trust for America’s Health Recommended Policy Actions

In 2023, Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) released “The Impact of Chronic Underfunding on America’s Public Health System: Trends, Risks and Recommendations”. This report highlights the important role that public health systems, and the laboratories that underpin them, play in the protection and improvement of well-being and prosperity for the nation and the world. Yet, according to the report, “for over two decades, the country’s public health system has not received the level of funding needed to ensure it meets the nation’s public health needs.” Public health laboratories continue to fight for reduction of morbidity and mortality in their communities despite reduced resources. Here, we detail how BugSeq is enabling public health laboratories to achieve this goal using the policy recommendations of the TFAH report.

  1. Modernize and strengthen public health in every community, including data systems and public health laboratory capacity.

    Next-generation sequencing enables more granular insights for public health laboratories across many diseases. BugSeq is leading the modernization of laboratory data systems by empowering the transition to genomic infectious disease characterization, surveillance and infection control measures. BugSeq’s user-friendly and cloud-scalable bioinformatics platform is expanding public health laboratory capacity, enabling users to integrate genomics data into their data systems with rapid turnaround times.

    Our platform is currently deployed in many public health and frontline laboratories to power bioinformatics infrastructure. Our users leverage BugSeq to enable disease-agnostic surveillance techniques for a modern public health system. In addition to the platform, BugSeq provides bioinformatic training to strengthen the workforce for the use of genomic technology. BugSeq’s analysis reports enable users to strain type pathogens, assess allelic differences between isolates for outbreak investigation and inform clinical interpretation of metagenomics data

  2. Invest in the nation’s health security by investing in programs that build defenses against a range of threats, from infectious diseases to weather-related events.

    By providing users with a fully-automated and comprehensive bioinformatics solution, BugSeq allows users to perform surveillance for an extensive range of biothreat and health security priorities.

    BugSeq has worked with CDC to build and deploy a Category A agent (e.g. anthrax) detection and reporting tool across the Laboratory Response Network. Through two BARDA-funded contracts, BugSeq has worked to respond to emerging infectious diseases by developing and validating pathogen agnostic diagnostics coupled with regulatory-compliant bioinformatic analysis.

    Beyond collaboration with federal agencies, BugSeq’s users are using our platform to effectively respond to public health threats through its metagenomic, outbreak investigation, and antimicrobial resistance capabilities. According to the TFAH report, more than 35,000 people die each year from infections that are resistant to drugs like antibiotics. BugSeq’s investment in machine learning and phenotypic antimicrobial resistance prediction enables targeted measures to prevent the threat of antimicrobial-resistant infections. Together, this work has positioned BugSeq as an industry leader in health security.

  3. Address health inequities and the root causes of disease by addressing the social determinants of health.

    BugSeq’s focus on infectious disease enables public health laboratories to address the populations with the greatest burden of these diseases: those impacted by structural racism, poverty, systemic discrimination, and disinvestment. High-throughput genomics data enables public health laboratories to draw insights from a broader population range within resource constrained environments. Wastewater surveillance sequencing efforts have enabled our users to effectively track infectious disease prevalence across communities and assess whether certain pathogens are disproportionately affecting those which are marginalized. Other laboratories have leveraged our platform to study the transmission of infections in marginalized populations.

  4. Promote health and prevent chronic disease across the lifespan.

    Public health laboratories are using BugSeq for preventive efforts, protecting vulnerable populations including infants, elderly and people with chronic diseases. BugSeq’s outbreak investigation tools are used daily across many states to detect and prevent the spread of infections in hospital and long term care settings. BugSeq’s in silico serotyping and strain typing tools are used to draw insights into the epidemiology of circulating pathogens in the community and inform how vaccines are used for prevention of infectious disease in pediatric and elderly populations.

Conclusion

Public health modernization and sustained capacity building is vital to ensure the continued success that we saw from public health laboratories during the pandemic. BugSeq is enabling public health laboratories to achieve their strategic goals, consistent with Trust for America’s Health policy recommendations, and reduce morbidity and mortality in our communities.

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