We ca n’t formally call the program Google Disease(tm ) . But that ’s essentially whatHealthMapis . Developed by physician at Harvard Medical School , it ’s a mashup of a mankind map , news and selective information feeds on disease all around the world , and $ 450,000 of Google.org funding . Some slick computer software piles update on emerging diseases into area - by - region alerts to help public health researchers find and snuff an outbreak before it turns into the 1918 influenza . The service is also free , so anyone who wants to know whether the big uncollectible Bird Flu is knocking on their door can go and have agandertoo .
HealthMap could be extra helpful in places where memory access to public health information is intemperate to come by . For instance China , whoseofficial linefor a while back in 2002 and 2003 was “ SARS ? I do n’t know what you ’re talking about . There ’ no one dying of a mysterious disease here . ”
And according to the Wired article , design could be in the works to bring Healthmap down to the street level :
Back in 2006 , Google.org head Larry Brilliant tell Wired.com about his vision for a service that seem a lot like HealthMap .
“ I envision a kid ( in Africa ) bring online and find that there is an outbreak of cholera down the street . I envision someone in Cambodia finding out that there is Hansen’s disease across the street , ” Brilliant said .
HealthMap does n’t have quite that degree of settlement just yet — eruption are only mapped to the state / province level …
Knowing about outbreaks as they happen is a safe thing , and potentially really empowering , but HealthMappers and Larry Brilliant seem to be swan into a privacy minefield .
A house - by - sign account of who ’s got what disease would sure help out public health research worker , but what would it do to a community ? Should I be capable to find out who on my block has Hepatitis , Dengue Fever , or HIV ? And to what extent is someone suffering from that disease set aside to not secernate anyone about it ? That ’s a toughened question , but one that ’ll need answering before HealthMap goes hyper - local .
Source : PLoS MedicineviaWired
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