Lessons for the future
Vaccines are one of the most effective ways to protect people against pandemics, but an effective and rapid response to pandemic diseases can only be achieved through coordinated surveillance, early warning systems, and responses by all levels of government across the world.
Data generated through the tracking, surveillance and analysis of population health will increase our capability to monitor trends in health and wellbeing, and to make predictions about the future of global health. The digitisation of health must underpin this transition. By rapidly processing vast amounts of health information, AI technologies can supplement healthcare professionals’ efforts to make decisions in rapidly changing situations.
Traditional tracking often depends on time-consuming manual investigation, but CSIRO’s Data61 has developed a tool that tracks the spread of infectious disease using statistical machine learning techniques. This tool rapidly processes multiple sources of information on people movement to understand how diseases spread. This will provide an opportunity to predict when and where an outbreak is likely to occur, allowing hospitals and biosecurity agencies to be as prepared as possible.
Telehealth and mobile health are also key technologies to enable and support surveillance, monitoring, and containment. Telehealth is the use of advanced telecommunication technologies to exchange health information and provide healthcare across geographic, social and cultural barriers, improving access and enabling the provision of care to individuals who cannot physically attend consultations.
Telehealth is already being deployed by the Australian government to provide access to essential health services to people in self-isolation or quarantine, and reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 for vulnerable people. US medical authorities are calling the outbreak a ‘turning point’ for health, in demonstrating how telehealth can be used in a public health crisis.
Mobile phone apps can be used for disease surveillance and monitoring, outbreak tracking and to educate consumers about preventative healthcare. South Korea is even using a smartphone app to monitor its citizens during a mandatory home quarantine. The app, developed by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, allows those who have been ordered not to leave home to stay in contact with case workers and report on their progress. It will also use GPS to keep track of their location to make sure they are not breaking their quarantine.
Another emerging technology that can be deployed in the surveillance and understanding of infectious diseases is genomics. Infectious disease genome data – produced from near-real-time, high-throughput screening – is already providing valuable insights into how infectious diseases are started, spread and evolved. This data can further provide targeted approaches to infectious disease control at both the individual and population level.
