Google launches HealthMap and PlosMedicine article -- When a mechanics web-based project?

Mike Ciavarella — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:35:42 -0400

These type of projects are interesting, when a mechanics-based one?

http://www.healthmap.org/en

An example of web-based projects

Summary Points

Valuable information about infectioous
diseases is found in Web-accessible
information sources such as discussion
forums, mailing lists, government Web
sites, and news outlets.

Web-based electronic information
sources can play an important role
in early event detection and support
situational awareness by providing
current, highly local information about
outbreaks, even from areas relatively
invisible to traditional global public
health efforts.

While these sources are potentially
useful, information overload and
difficulties in distinguishing “signal
from noise” pose substantial barriers to
fully utilizing this information.

Healthmap is a freely accessible,
automated real-time system that
monitors, organizes, integrates, filters,
visualizes, and disseminates online
information about emerging diseases.

I attach the paper:

Surveillance Sans Frontières: Internet-Based Emerging Infectious Disease Intelligence and the HealthMap Project

John S. Brownstein*, Clark C. Freifeld, Ben Y. Reis, Kenneth D. Mandl

Funding:
This work was supported by grants R21LM009263-01 and R01LM007970-01
from the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of
Health, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and a research
grant from Google.org. The funders had no role in study design, data
collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the
manuscript.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Citation:
Brownstein JS, Freifeld CC, Reis BY, Mandl KD (2008) Surveillance Sans
Frontières: Internet-Based Emerging Infectious Disease Intelligence and
the HealthMap Project. PLoS Med 5(7): e151 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050151

Published: July 8, 2008

Copyright:
© 2008 Brownstein et al. This is an open-access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original author and source are credited.

Abbreviations: GPHIN, Global Public Health Intelligence Network; SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome; WHO, World Health Organization

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:john_brownstein@harvard.edu

All
authors are with the Children's Hospital Informatics Program at the
Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology; the Division of
Emergency Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston; and the Department of
Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United
States of America.

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Google launches HealthMap and PlosMedicine article -- When a mechanics web-based project?