Preventing disease: strategies and approaches

Health Map

The risk of a pandemic disease spreading throughout the globe is higher than it has ever been in the history of the world. The massive population boom and rapid travel methods have combined to demonstrate that germs and diseases are potential weapons against the health and welfare of the population. To help remedy this cause, technology has shown us that, with its proper implementation, it can have a great benefit to those who are designated to protect the population from such threats.

The purpose of this essay is to highlight the importance of surveillance in the fight against such communicable disease outbreaks. To accomplish this task, this essay will detail the benefits and limitations of the surveillance system HealthMap. This essay will discuss how this particular piece of technology contributes to minimizing and eliminating potential threats.

HealthMap

The HealthMap system is recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a recommended resource by federal authorities. The organization published this about the technology: "HealthMap is a publicly available online resource that collects, filters, and visualizes disease outbreak reports in real time, by means of a series of automated text-processing algorithms. Sources include online news through aggregators such as Google News, expert-curated discussion such as ProMED-mail, and validated official reports from organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO)."

Essentially HealthMap is a real-time model of the world that highlights the potential for disease. The web site provides this information at healthmap.org, and a mobile application for phones and other devices is available for free as well. HealthMap claims to bring together a wide array of sources to find information that is helpful in determining where communicable diseases are most likely to experience an outbreak.

According to their website, HealthMap draws its information from the following sources:

ProMED Mail, a program for the International Society of Infectious Diseases

World Health Organization, United Nations

GeoSentinel, from International Society of Travel Medicine and CDC

OIE- World Organization for Animal Health

FAO- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

EuroSurveillance, published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

Google News

Morever, news organization

Baidu News, Chinese News and Search Engine

Google Maps provides the mapping software that allows HealthMap to combine and synthesize the data and information that is collected from the aforementioned sources. Additionally, HealthMap provides a daily blog on its website that provides supporting information on diseases and tips and tactics to prevent unnecessary outbreaks of diseases that can cause great harm to society and the environment in general. HealthMap is a non-profit organization that receives its funding from various government and non-governmental organizations such as Google, USAID, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the CDC.

Pros and Cons of HealthMap

While HealthMap appears to be well intended, its use for professionals is limited. HealthMap is essentially a collection of secondary sources. These sources have information that may or may not be of the highest quality and allows for mistakes to happen due to the unreliability of certain news outlets and the state of disrepair that journalism generally finds itself in today. Little is known how HealthMap uses and synthesizes the data it receives so it is hard to really get a firm understanding on what is actually being presented.