Two Digital Emergency Medical Tools for Your Electronic Toolkit…BTW, Happy Friday the 13th!

Is there any advance “intelligence” that is being collected, aggregated and reviewed about possible medical issues in your neighborhood and around the world?  As a matter of fact there are two great ones!

One of my all time favorites is a group called ProMED-mail.  This site is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (sounds like fun huh?) ProMED-mail – the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases – is an Internet-based reporting system dedicated to rapid global dissemination of information on outbreaks of infectious diseases and acute exposures to toxins that affect human health, including those in animals and in plants grown for food or animal feed.

Electronic communications enable ProMED-mail to provide up-to-date and reliable news about threats to human, animal, and food plant health around the world, seven days a week.  By providing early warning of outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging diseases, public health precautions at all levels can be taken in a timely manner to prevent epidemic transmission and to save lives.

When you sign up for their emails, I encourage you to sign up for the daily digest….otherwise you will receive numerous emails a day about awful diseases…it won’t be good for your personal mental health!

😉

ProMED-mail:  http://www.promedmail.org

A new resource brings the information directly to your smart phone.  With the captivating title of “HealthMap: Outbreaks Near Me” you know it will be a hit!

HealthMap, a team of researchers, epidemiologists and software developers at Children’s Hospital Boston founded in 2006, is an established global leader in utilizing online informal sources for disease outbreak monitoring and real-time surveillance of emerging public health threats. The freely available Web site ‘healthmap.org’ and mobile app ‘Outbreaks Near Me’ deliver real-time intelligence on a broad range of emerging infectious diseases for a diverse audience including libraries, local health departments, governments, and international travelers.

HealthMap brings together disparate data sources, including online news aggregators, eyewitness reports, expert-curated discussions and validated official reports, to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal health. Through an automated process, updating 24/7/365, the system monitors, organizes, integrates, filters, visualizes and disseminates online information about emerging diseases in nine languages, facilitating early detection of global public health threats.

HealthMap is announcing the release of new iPhone, iPad and Android apps. Visit the iTunes Store and Google Play to download “HealthMap: Outbreaks Near Me”.  The new app maintains familiarity but features a sleeker look, increased usability, and more features. Switch between map view, list view, and news from their publication, The Disease Daily (now that is a great title!). Submit a new report, or view your past submissions by entering your email address.

HealthMap: http://healthmap.org