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A Tool for Interactive Disease Outbreak Visualization, Detection, and Forecasting

Description

Interactive tools for visualization of disease outbreaks has been improving markedly in the past few years. With the flagships Google Flutrends1 and HealthMap2 providing prime examples. These tools provide interactive access to the general public concerning the current state-of-affairs for disease outbreaks generally and specifically for influenza. For example, while browsing HealthMap I learned of a case of tuberculosis on my campus, Iowa State University. While extremely sophisticated, these tools do not utilize modern statistical algorithms for detection or forecasting. In addition, the development cost and perhaps the maintenance cost is not trivial. We aim to build a similar visualization tool that incorporates modern algorithms for detection and forecasting but has low development and maintenance cost. Due to the low cost this tool is appropriate for quick deployment in developing countries for emerging outbreaks as well as public health agencies with declining operating budgets.

Objective

To build a zero-cost tool for disease outbreak visualization, detection, and forecasting incorporating modern tools.

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