Development and Operations of a Student Outbreak Response Team – Lessons Learned from a Decade of Collaboration

BACKGROUND:  The Student Aid for Field Epidemiology Response (SAFER) team was developed at The University of Arizona 10 years ago as a collaborative effort with state and county health departments.   What began as a student-led team has now become a required graduate-level course on outbreak response at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health (MEZCOPH).  It is taught each semester by an infectious disease epidemiology faculty member with training sessions at various health departments around the state. The main goal of this program is train students in outbreak investigation and surveillance techniques where they can then act as surge capacity for local health departments.  

METHODS:  The program has evolved over time, beginning with a needs assessment of local health departments to determine the focus of student training and issues related to transmission and confidentiality of data, interviewing techniques and resource allocation.  After two years of pilot support from MEZCOPH, the Maricopa County Department of Public Health offered a way to expand the program through a service grant that provided funds for a program director, teaching assistants and outbreak expenses.  This provided a direct link from the University to the health department and resulted in additional investigations, studies and routine surveillance activities that would otherwise have not been possible. 

RESULTS:  Through SAFER, over a 175 students have contributed more than 1600 hours of time on 58 separate outbreaks ranging from gastrointestinal illnesses, to community-wide measles and influenza outbreaks, and even chemical exposures.  In addition, another 1250 hours for routine enteric investigations, specifically for Campylobacter and Salmonella have been conducted in the last 2.5 years.   Student activities include telephone and in person interviews of cases and controls, conducting syndromic surveillance at large public events such as Super Bowls XLII and XLIX, and assisting in multiple points of dispensing activities.   

CONCLUSIONS:  When looking to create a student response team it is important to consider five roles that SAFER fulfills in establishing and marketing a student response team.  It: (1) trains students in field experiences; (2) creates trained surge capacity for health departments; (3) increases collaboration between schools of public health and state/local health departments; (4) establishes a way to share funding with a local health department; and (5) increases the number of students being placed in health departments for projects, internships, and jobs following graduation.