Crowdsourcing a living map of world health
What if by collecting data from mobile medical apps on cell phones around the world, we could map significant problems and see the flu coming like a giant whirling hurricane? A team of engineers, biologists and medical researchers at the University of California, San Diego wants to leverage the widespread use of smart phone technology and cloud computing to build maps of large-scale health problems or environmental damage such as the concentration of heavy metals in drinking water. The idea is based on the principle that health, including infectious disease and environmental pollution, is a trackable geospatial event. The team is working towards developing a tricorder that could monitor both individual and environmental health. In phase one, citizen sensors will test their drinking water using a simple test strip device that automatically sends the test results to a central data server for analysis while telling the tester whether the...