All day
Breakfast with SFI
Thursday, September 18, 2014
8:00 a.m. Breakfast
8:30 a.m. Talk
Garden Court Hotel
Terrace Room
520 Cowper Street
Palo Alto, CA
Using Your Digital Footprint to Track the Next Pandemic
Ben Althouse
and
Sam Scarpino
Omidyar Fellows,
Santa Fe Institute
Diseases, infectious and chronic, novel and known, emerge into populations at breakneck speed, spreading to the far reaches of the globe. Pandemic influenza moved from Mexico to every country on Earth in just a few months, mosquito-borne viruses Chikungunya and dengue have crossed from the Caribbean to the United States, Ebola continues to ravage central and western Africa, and the obesity epidemic continues to grow in the US and abroad. It is the job and great challenge of epidemiologists and public health practitioners to rapidly identify and track infectious pathogens and health-related behaviors to lessen the impact of disease on susceptible populations. The dawn of the digital era has lead to individuals searching for (through Google, other search engines and Wikipedia) and broadcasting (through social media, Twitter and Facebook) health-related information. These “digital footprints” left by individuals can be analyzed and aggregated to rapidly and cost-effectively track emerging and common diseases.
Here, we present applications of these new digital tools recently added in the public health arsenal, from using Google Flu Trends to more accurately detect levels of influenza activity to using Google searches and Wikipedia article views to track dengue virus and mental health problems. Online data sources have the potential to revolutionize healthcare, one footprint at a time.
Seating is limited and by invitation only.
Please click here to register and reserve your place by September 12 or call the Office of Advancement at 505.946.3678.