Přístupnostní navigace
E-application
Search Search Close
Project detail
Duration: 01.01.2010 — 30.06.2012
On the project
Many factors in today’s changing societies contribute towards the continuous emergence of infectious diseases.Demographic change, globalization, bioterrorism, compounded with the resilient nature of viruses and diseasessuch as SARS and avian influenza have raised awareness for European society’s increasing vulnerability.Traditional Epidemic Intelligence systems are designed to identify potential health threats, and rely upon datatransmissions from laboratories or hospitals. They can be used to recognise long-term trends, but are limitedin several ways. Threats, such as SARS, can go unrecognised since the signals indicating its existence mayoriginate from sources other than the traditional ones. Second, a critical strategy for circumventing devastatingpublic health events is early detection and early response. Conflictingly, the time with which informationpropagates through the traditional channels, can undermine time-sensitive strategies. Finally, traditional systemsare well suited for recognising indicators for known diseases, but are not well designed for detecting thosethat are emerging. Faced with these limitations, traditional systems need to be complemented with additionalapproaches which are better targeted for the early detection of emerging threats.The Medical EcoSystem (M-Eco) project, will address these limitations by using Open Access Media andUser Generated Content, as unofficial information sources for Epidemic Intelligence. This type of content hastransformed the manner in which information propagates across the globe. Based on this, M-Eco will developan Event-Based Epidemic Intelligence System which integrates unofficial and traditional sources for the earlydetection of emerging health threats. M-Eco will emphasize adaptivity and personalized filtering so that relevantsignals can be detected for targeting the needs of public health officials who have to synthesize facts, assessrisks and react to public health threats.
Description in CzechMany factors in today’s changing societies contribute towards the continuous emergence of infectious diseases.Demographic change, globalization, bioterrorism, compounded with the resilient nature of viruses and diseasessuch as SARS and avian influenza have raised awareness for European society’s increasing vulnerability.Traditional Epidemic Intelligence systems are designed to identify potential health threats, and rely upon datatransmissions from laboratories or hospitals. They can be used to recognise long-term trends, but are limitedin several ways. Threats, such as SARS, can go unrecognised since the signals indicating its existence mayoriginate from sources other than the traditional ones. Second, a critical strategy for circumventing devastatingpublic health events is early detection and early response. Conflictingly, the time with which informationpropagates through the traditional channels, can undermine time-sensitive strategies. Finally, traditional systemsare well suited for recognising indicators for known diseases, but are not well designed for detecting thosethat are emerging. Faced with these limitations, traditional systems need to be complemented with additionalapproaches which are better targeted for the early detection of emerging threats.The Medical EcoSystem (M-Eco) project, will address these limitations by using Open Access Media andUser Generated Content, as unofficial information sources for Epidemic Intelligence. This type of content hastransformed the manner in which information propagates across the globe. Based on this, M-Eco will developan Event-Based Epidemic Intelligence System which integrates unofficial and traditional sources for the earlydetection of emerging health threats. M-Eco will emphasize adaptivity and personalized filtering so that relevantsignals can be detected for targeting the needs of public health officials who have to synthesize facts, assessrisks and react to public health threats.
KeywordsPublic Health Event Detection, Personalization, UserGenerated Content
Mark
M-Eco
Default language
English
People responsible
Smrž Pavel, doc. RNDr., Ph.D. - principal person responsible
Link
http://www.meco-project.eu