Good Example of public-private-university partnership to tackle major public health crisis

[Eric K. Noji, M.D.]

Here is the original article that the editorial from Military Medic...

This is one of the best examples I've seen of a public-private-foundation-university partnership to tackle a major public health problem. Actually, a potential global crisis -- pandemic influenza. The collaborators of this study were from Google.org, Centers for Disease Control, Google.com and Stanford.

See below for abstract and click on following link for full-text of article:

Google CDC Collaboration.pdf

E.


Nature 457, 1012-1014 (19 February 2009)

Detecting influenza epidemics using search engine query data

Jeremy Ginsberg1 , Matthew H. Mohebbi1 , Rajan S. Patel1 , Lynnette Brammer2 , Mark S. Smolinski1 & Larry Brilliant1

1. Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California 94043, USA
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30333, USA

Correspondence to: Matthew H. Mohebbi1 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to J.G. or M.H.M. (Email: [e-mail]).

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Abstract

Seasonal influenza epidemics are a major public health concern, causing tens of millions of respiratory illnesses and 250,000 to 500,000 deaths worldwide each year1 . In addition to seasonal influenza, a new strain of influenza virus against which no previous immunity exists and that demonstrates human-to-human transmission could result in a pandemic with millions of fatalities2 . Early detection of disease activity, when followed by a rapid response, can reduce the impact of both seasonal and pandemic influenza3, 4 . One way to improve early detection is to monitor health-seeking behaviour in the form of queries to online search engines, which are submitted by millions of users around the world each day. Here we present a method of analysing large numbers of Google search queries to track influenza-like illness in a population. Because the relative frequency of certain queries is highly correlated with the percentage of physician visits in which a patient presents with influenza-like symptoms, we can accurately estimate the current level of weekly influenza activity in each region of the United States, with a reporting lag of about one day. This approach may make it possible to use search queries to detect influenza epidemics in areas with a large population of web search users.

[CC-Conrad Clyburn-MedForeSight]

Eric,

Thank you. Public Private Partnerships (PPP) are an effective mechanism to fully exploit all of our National resources to confront a potentially challenging public health problem. We at MedTech-IQ are persuaded that "Triple Helix" - Academic, Industry, Government" collaboration are at the heart of modern innovation systems. The two concepts are consistent and reinforce each other. Thank you for your contribution.

CC