Aims: Methods for prediction of the peak of the influenza from early observations are suggested. These predictions can be used for planning purposes. Methods: In this study, new robust methods are described and applied on weekly Swedish data on influenza-like illness (ILI) and weekly laboratory...

Multivariate surveillance is of interest in industrial production as it enables the monitoring of several components. Recently there has been an increased interest also in other areas such as detection of bioterrorism, spatial surveillance and transaction strategies in finance. Multivariate...

Markov chains (MCs) have been used to study how the health states of patients are progressing in time. With few exceptions the studies have been based on the questionable assumptions that the MC has order m=1 and is homogeneous in time. In this paper a three-state non-homogeneous MC model is...

A three-state non-homogeneous Markov chain (MC) of order m=0, denoted M(m), was previously introduced by the author. The model was used to analyze work resumption among sick-listed patients. It was demonstrated that wrong assumptions about the Markov order m and about homogeneity can seriously...

On-line monitoring is needed to detect outbreaks of diseases like influenza. Surveillance is also needed for other kinds of outbreaks, in the sense of an increasing expected value after a constant period. Information on spatial location or other variables might be available and may be utilized....

Information about the spatial spread of epidemics can be useful for many purposes. The spatial aspect of Swedish influenza data was analyzed with the main aim of finding patterns that could be useful for statistical surveillance of the outbreak, i.e. for detecting an increase in incidence as...

Spatial surveillance is a special case of multivariate surveillance. Thus, in this review of spatial outbreak methods, the relation to general multivariate surveillance approaches is discussed. Different outbreak models are needed for different public health applications. We will discuss methods...

An overview on surveillance in different areas is given. Even though methods have been developed under different scientific cultures, the statistical concepts can be the same. When the statistical problems are the same, progress in one area can be used also in other areas. The aim of...

Different change point models for AR(1) processes are reviewed. For some models, the change is in the distribution conditional on earlier observations. For others the change is in the unconditional distribution. Some models include an observation before the first possible change time — others...

Industrial production requires multivariate control charts to enable monitoring of several components. Recently there has been an increased interest also in other areas such as detection of bioterrorism, spatial surveillance and transaction strategies in finance. In the literature, several types...