Global health security needs better information on biological threats such as pandemics
and bioterrorism that pose ever-increasing dangers for the health of populations
worldwide. A vast amount of real-time information about infectious disease outbreaks is
found in various forms of Web-based data streams. There are advantages and
disadvantages of Internet-based surveillance and it has been suggested that an important
research area will be to evaluate the application of technologies that will provide benefits
to outbreak disease control at local, national, and international levels.
KEYWORDS: Web 2.0 technologies, Social networks, Information fusion, Analytical research, Situational awareness sensors, Military medicine, Environmental monitoring, Biometrics, Current controlled current source, Animal model studies
The Emerging Media Integration Team at the Department of the Navy Office of
Information (CHINFO) has recently put together a Navy Command Social Media
Handbook designed to provide information needed to safely and effectively use social
media. While not intended to be a comprehensive guide on command use of social media
or to take the place of official policy, the Handbook provides a useful guide for
navigating a dynamic communications environment. Social media are changing the way
information is diffused and decisions are made, especially for Humanitarian Assistance
missions when there is increased emphasis on Navy commands to share critical
information with other Navy command sites, government, and official NGO (nongovernmental
organization) sites like the American Red Cross. In order to effectively
use social media to support such missions, the Handbook suggests creating a centralized
location to funnel information. This suggests that as the community of interest (COI)
grows during a crisis, it will be important to ensure that information is shared with
appropriate organizations for different aspects of the mission such as evacuation
procedures, hospital sites, location of seaports and airports, and other topics relevant to
the mission. For example, in the first 14 days of the U.S. Southern Command's Haiti
HA/DR (Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief) mission, the COI grew to over 1,900
users. In addition, operational conditions vary considerably among incidents, and
coordination between different groups is often set up in an ad hoc manner. What is
needed is a methodology that will help to find appropriate people with whom to share
information for particular aspects of a mission during a wide range of events related to
the mission. CNA has developed such a methodology and we would like to test it in a
small scale lab experiment.
The Homeland Security News Wire has been reporting on new ways to fight epidemics using digital tools such as
iPhone, social networks, Wikipedia, and other Internet sites. Instant two-way communication now gives consumers the
ability to complement official reports on emerging infectious diseases from health authorities. However, there is
increasing concern that these communications networks could open the door to mass panic from unreliable or false
reports. There is thus an urgent need to ensure that epidemiological monitoring for emerging infectious diseases gives
health authorities the capability to identify, analyze, and report disease outbreaks in as timely and efficient a manner as
possible. One of the dilemmas in the global dissemination of information on infectious diseases is the possibility that
information overload will create inefficiencies as the volume of Internet-based surveillance information increases. What
is needed is a filtering mechanism that will retrieve relevant information for further analysis by epidemiologists,
laboratories, and other health organizations so they are not overwhelmed with irrelevant information and will be able to
respond quickly. This paper introduces a self-organizing ontology that could be used as a filtering mechanism to
increase relevance and allow rapid analysis of disease outbreaks as they evolve in real time.
Conference Committee Involvement (2)
Sensing Technologies for Global Health, Military Medicine, Disaster Response, and Environmental Monitoring II
23 April 2012 | Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Sensing Technologies for Global Health, Military Medicine, Disaster Response, and Environmental Monitoring
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.