Global Proliferation of Participatory Surveillance: Examples from North America, Thailand, and Brazil
|
If you are the presenter of this abstract (or if you cite this abstract in a talk or on a poster), please show the QR code in your slide or poster (QR code contains this URL). |
Abstract
Participatory, crowdsourcing disease surveillance systems have grown in number and spread to several continents in the last several years. Understanding the potential for these participatory systems to find outbreaks faster, the Skoll Global Threats Fund (SGTF) has supported the development and implementation of multiple participatory systems since 2011.
In the United States, Flu Near You was created in partnership with HealthMap of Boston Children’s Hospital and launched in 2011. Participants self-report symptoms of influenza-like-illness (ILI) via the website or smartphone application. Users can then visualize aggregated self-reports on a map, down to the zip code level, to view ILI activity in their area. Flu Near You reminds users via email or push notification to report their symptoms (or lack thereof) once per week. As of February 2014, Flu Near You has over 116,000 registered users representing every state in the U.S. and every province in Canada. In Puerto Rico, the FNY system has been adapted to support 'Salud Boricua', a similar participatory surveillance system that also includes symptom reporting for dengue and leptospirosis.
In Thailand, Opendream Co., launched the DoctorMe mobile application in 2011 as a digitalization of the Folk Doctor Foundation’s bi-weekly healthcare magazine. DoctorMe provides health promotion and education material for users who inquire about any health condition along with a database of over 1,000 registered hospitals and clinics, a free emergency call system and information regarding medicines and Thai herbal remedies. Since its launch, DoctorMe has steadily been ranked amongst the most popular applications in the health and fitness category of mobile applications in Thailand. By the end of 2013, the application had been downloaded by over 400,000 users and has 35,000 active users monthly. The DoctorMe application is currently undergoing a transformation to include a participatory disease surveillance mechanism so that users can share symptoms of disease on an open mapping platform to help identify potential clusters of communicable disease.
Finally, the Brazilian Ministry of Health (MOH), through a partnership with software developer EpiTrack, is developing a mobile application, Saúde na Copa, as a participatory surveillance tool for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. This application will create direct, real-time communication between the individual user and the health surveillance services. This data will be used to generate baselines for diagnosis of specific situations and create the possibility of collaboration with the population for maintaining a healthy and safe community during a mass gathering event. The development of a participatory surveillance tool is part of a larger project to monitor the health and safety of the Brazilian population and those traveling to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup.
This panel will bring together representatives from each of these participatory surveillance projects to discuss the latest developments, recruitment and retention of users, and results from concentrated efforts in 2014. Panelists will also discuss future directions for each project and prospects for expanding participatory surveillance to other areas.
In the United States, Flu Near You was created in partnership with HealthMap of Boston Children’s Hospital and launched in 2011. Participants self-report symptoms of influenza-like-illness (ILI) via the website or smartphone application. Users can then visualize aggregated self-reports on a map, down to the zip code level, to view ILI activity in their area. Flu Near You reminds users via email or push notification to report their symptoms (or lack thereof) once per week. As of February 2014, Flu Near You has over 116,000 registered users representing every state in the U.S. and every province in Canada. In Puerto Rico, the FNY system has been adapted to support 'Salud Boricua', a similar participatory surveillance system that also includes symptom reporting for dengue and leptospirosis.
In Thailand, Opendream Co., launched the DoctorMe mobile application in 2011 as a digitalization of the Folk Doctor Foundation’s bi-weekly healthcare magazine. DoctorMe provides health promotion and education material for users who inquire about any health condition along with a database of over 1,000 registered hospitals and clinics, a free emergency call system and information regarding medicines and Thai herbal remedies. Since its launch, DoctorMe has steadily been ranked amongst the most popular applications in the health and fitness category of mobile applications in Thailand. By the end of 2013, the application had been downloaded by over 400,000 users and has 35,000 active users monthly. The DoctorMe application is currently undergoing a transformation to include a participatory disease surveillance mechanism so that users can share symptoms of disease on an open mapping platform to help identify potential clusters of communicable disease.
Finally, the Brazilian Ministry of Health (MOH), through a partnership with software developer EpiTrack, is developing a mobile application, Saúde na Copa, as a participatory surveillance tool for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. This application will create direct, real-time communication between the individual user and the health surveillance services. This data will be used to generate baselines for diagnosis of specific situations and create the possibility of collaboration with the population for maintaining a healthy and safe community during a mass gathering event. The development of a participatory surveillance tool is part of a larger project to monitor the health and safety of the Brazilian population and those traveling to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup.
This panel will bring together representatives from each of these participatory surveillance projects to discuss the latest developments, recruitment and retention of users, and results from concentrated efforts in 2014. Panelists will also discuss future directions for each project and prospects for expanding participatory surveillance to other areas.
Medicine 2.0® is happy to support and promote other conferences and workshops in this area. Contact us to produce, disseminate and promote your conference or workshop under this label and in this event series. In addition, we are always looking for hosts of future World Congresses. Medicine 2.0® is a registered trademark of JMIR Publications Inc., the leading academic ehealth publisher.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.