Friday, September 28, 2012

Twitter App Tracks Illness Outbreaks

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently announced that it would make Web-based application, "MappyHealth" to track and analyze health related comments on Twitter.  The app will help local public health agencies identify emerging health issues and public health emergencies earlier than traditional surveillance methods do. 

Actually, studies of the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic and the Haiti cholera outbreak show that social media could detect disease outbreaks about 2 weeks earlier than conventional surveillance methods.

If the public health agencies not only in the U.S but also in other countries can utilize MappyHealth, it will contribute a lot to improve global public health!

http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/clinical-systems/twitter-app-tracks-illness-outbreaks/240007513

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