All public health monitoring systems have a lag time between getting reports, compiling and sending on to their state or federal agencies.

For example, the CDC issues a weekly update on Fridays about pandemic flu. What if the CDC could update daily when the winter probably will bring a rise in the numbers of cases? Hot spots—places where break-outs are happening right then—-could be more easily identified. Information to state and local officials could be sent faster.

Google earlier announced that it will track the flu in real time. It remains to be seen how that experiment will work but it is a first step in “infodemiology,” an invented word to describe the marriage between informational devices and epidemiology, or the science of studying the origin of diseases.

It should be a happy marriage, giving public health officers more, faster and richer information.

Of course, like all things tech, there will be some “issues” as the tech support people like to say, but they will get worked out. Social networks have shown their reach and speed. It is worth harnessing on behalf of health.

The Washington Post

…“Say you feel sick, but before you see a doctor you search the Web for information, or blog or Twitter about the flu. Your worries will be detected by companies prowling the Internet for disease trends. (Emphasis added)

“If you actually come down with the flu, and the doctors want to know who you’ve been in physical contact with, your trusty cellphone could soon tell them.

“And someday, scientists hope, this “infodemiology” might help forecast and track a flu epidemic the way experts monitor the weather. (Emphasis added)

“As health officials gear up for the flu season amid the global H1N1 pandemic, technology and new forms of Internet social interaction are transforming how such outbreaks are monitored.”

Source: Washington Post, September 2, 2009