HealthMap brings together disparate data sources to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal health. This freely available Web site integrates outbreak data of varying reliability, ranging from news sources (such as Google News) to curated personal accounts (such as ProMED) to validated official alerts (such as World Health Organization). Through an automated text processing system, the data is aggregated by disease and displayed by location for user-friendly access to the original alert. HealthMap provides a jumping-off point for real-time information on emerging infectious diseases and has particular interest for public health officials and international travelers.
Technology Review has an article about HealthMap titled, "Tracking H1N1 through the Internet." HealthMap, a free online tracking system, keeps tabs on infectious disease.
I think the Healthmap concept is an excellent one and should be supported.
ReplyDeleteI am aware of a company that has integrated GIS with ontological engineering and disease control that is worth note.
It's a small privately held SaaS development company based in Colorado has developed and deployed an ontologically-based, GIS integrated disease management decision support system in Africa to fight malaria. This is a significant system that was funded by the global combatants of this disease and the system can be rapidly customized for deployment to other disease environments…especially if you are talking about vector-borne disease. The company, TerraFrame TerraFrame is interested in leveraging its technology to fight global diseases and is happy to entertain creative conversations to that effect. For more information please contact Ray Hutchins at rh@terraframe.co