How is new-age technology helping to control the spread of infectious disease across the globe? That was the topic of discussion Thursday evening at the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences.The event featured lectures on two unique technological advancements and data collection resources: The HealthMap Project, funded by Children’s Hospital Boston and the Harvard – MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology and HealthWatch, a service of Voxiva, a global provider of mobile-centric information solutions.
HealthMap, a website dedicated to mapping global infectious disease intelligence, relies on users to upload reports of infectious disease outbreak via the Web or their iPhones. The information is vetted by human fact checkers and plotted on a global color-coded map. The site is available in six languages, free to use, and is a valuable resource of both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization
Amy Sonricker, an epidemeologist with Children’s Hospital Boston, said HealthMap was one of the first to receive reports of swine flu outbreaks in Mexico on April 1. But with the cascade of user-generated content, a host of logistical concerns have emerged.
“As the number of [H1NI] media reports skyrocketed, it became more of a challenge for the human component to curate,” said Sonricker. “But over time, we expect the program to get more and more intelligent.”
The HealthMap Project has also engaged the public via a Facebook page and Twitter feed. A free iPhone application is also available and the project is on the verge of releasing BlackBerry and Motorola Android-friendly applications to widen its user base.
A byproduct of a private transnational mobile communications company, HealthWatch is a service used by public health agencies across the globe to provide cutting-edge disease surveillance and resources for effective response. Workers on the ground are able to submit real-time reports on infectious disease outbreaks via the Web, mobile phone or interactive voice response technology.
William Warshauer, Voxiva's executive vice president in charge of Africa, said the HealthWatch service is mostly used by “official, government systems” to help coordinate unified and timely responses in the event of an infectious disease outbreak and prevent pandemics.
Still, Warshauer admitted that HealthWatch and similar resources are just the beginning of a process that has the potential to span decades.
“This is one step. The vision of a completely integrated system is a long way away,” he said.
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