Health IT, Hospitals, Policy

Ebola Watch: CDC uses big data analytics, free mobile phones to monitor West African expats

The Ebola virus has forced us to take a hard look at how we contend […]

The Ebola virus has forced us to take a hard look at how we contend with diagnosing dangerous viruses and treating them, quarantines, citizens and visitors from countries affected by disease and containing these diseases. Even more importantly from a public health standpoint — how do we deal with the underlying fear a virus like Ebola inspires? A big data analytics program by the Centers for Disease Control developed a few years ago has been applied to the Ebola virus since October. It has helped the CDC coordinate its response to the virus and has supported how it is working with the West African expat community to respond to and monitor new cases.

Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, gave an overview of the BioMosaic program in Philadelphia this week at a conference hosted by The Atlantic magazine — Inventing the Future of Health. The app, a collaboration between the CDC, HealthMap, produced by Boston Children’s Hospital, and Toronto-based BlueDot (previously known as BioDiapora), uses census, demographic and migration health data of expat populations in the U.S. from 105 countries of birth and to assess the risk of international spread of infectious diseases. It can further break down the population by education level, household income, and English speaking ability. The CDC narrowed down the cities the majority of people from Sierra Leone, New Guinea, Liberia travel to, and focused on those airports. The iPad app is designed to be used by healthcare officials, not consumers.

It has distributed health kits with thermometers and mobile phones at a handful of airports that included educational information on symptoms to look for and the importance of using an enclosed thermometer to track their temperature for 21 days. They also received a mobile phone to help the CDC stay in touch with users for about one month so users have a way of sending and receiving messages to and from the CDC. It helps them stay in touch with health officials, ask questions and receive guidance on local health resources.

Cetron estimated that it has distributed more than 100 phones. Asked about the calls the CDC has handled for the program, he said people have called concerned about a fever but it turned out to be unrelated to Ebola. It has also helped direct people to local health facilities.

The program was developed a few years ago to help the CDC track other viruses such as the Middle East Respiratory Virus.

In a Q&A with Peter Beinart, a contributing editor with The Atlantic, Cetron noted that the BioMosaic app was also being used to track things like global distribution of poultry and swine, with an eye to forecasting and testing tied to bird flu and swine flu.

Cetron acknowledged the debate and alarm surrounding how Ebola cases were handled in Dallas, albeit without getting into the center’s role in the confusion over quarantine protocols.

“Epidemics of disease are frequently followed by epidemics of fear … and stigma. The epidemic of fear is understandable given the nature of this disease. But we need to make sure we get the balance right when we speak to the media…The disease needs to be controlled at the source.” He emphasized that although Ebola seems to have been tempered in Liberia, that’s not the case in Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Shares0
Shares0