One among the many great powers that data analytics have is to pinpoint and to predict any future outbreak which is a vital power needed to fight against the infectious diseases. Traditional techniques like follow up investigation reports, hospital records can be slow in predicting the awaiting harm. Data analytics powered by AI can deliver faster and reliable results by using newer approaches like network traffic data, mobile data, airline ticketing data, social media etc.
In a survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by SAS, almost 42% of the respondents view that, data analytics have greater potential that can be used in the health care sector to take it to a very great level and 73% believe that data analytics can help prevent future pandemics.
Data Analytics on-field against Pandemics
In 2010, Haiti showed a real-life example of how mobile analytics was used to provide relief supplies in response to an earthquake and a cholera outbreak. “We could show where people were moving within 24 hours, right from the initial outbreak, and we could distribute that information to relief agencies” said Linus Bengtsson, executive director of Flowminder, a Swedish non-profit, who led the mobile initiative.
In 2016, AI platform BlueDot, a data analytics firm predicted the spread of Zika to the Florida, US, six months before by combining data about the population sets, flight ticketing data and ecological data of the carrying mosquitos.
Late December 2019, BlueDot’s AI spotted unusual strains of pneumonia cases around Wuhan, China, nine days before the WHO alerts about COVID-19.
A National Geographic report demonstrates how data mining from the internet by monitoring social media and the search engines can help early detect the location of the outbreak.
Managing Pandemic with Data
When all data such as telecom mobile operator’s data, travel and tourism data, media data, search engine activity and medical data are all crucial piece of information. Industries should collaborate with data firms and provide active participation as data partners to achieve the common best, says Kamran Khan, an infectious disease physician and BlueDot’s founder.
Searching and collecting data even at the start of an outbreak is already too late and thus the companies have to work together even before the disaster strikes, to curb any future pandemic, says Dr Kahn. He warns businesses working in isolation, run the risk of loosing much if the pandemic is not contained. “No one sector is going to solve this. We’re using all the levers available, all the relationships, to draw from strengths of each; the culture of discovery in academia, the pragmatism of businesses, and the top down policy process of governments.”
AI, Data and data analytics are the only hope to know the history of the future Pandemic!
