Mining Social Media and Web Searches For Disease Detection

Yang, Y. Tony; Horneffer, Michael; DiLisio, Nicole

A geographical information system (GIS) is a technological tool for understanding geographical issues and making intelligent decisions. 14 During an outbreak, GIS provides tools that speed the collection of accurate field data. Complex statistical and other analyses applied with GIS technology provide relevant information to support sound decisions. GIS analysis can, for example, locate a potential disease hot spot and calculate a nearby hospital's ability to handle the expected increase in service demand if an outbreak should occur. Public health emergencies are often protracted events. Effects of a disease outbreak (or an environmental disaster such as a chemical spill) have the potential for a long-term impact on the health and wellbeing of a community. Public health organisations rely on GIS analysis tools to assess data collected in the process of monitoring long-term health effects. 15 To give public health officials an intuitive, spatially-based and collaborative online resource with which to analyse the emergence and spread of infectious disease, multiple web-based programmes must be used in combination. Previously, web-based programmes that housed different data sources and display methods had to be used independently of one another. Advances in information technology now allow for the creation of mashups, or web sites or services that weave data from different sources into a new and consolidated data source or service. 16 Mashup programmes such as My Maps and Mapplets allow the layman to integrate disparate data sources.