Assessment of digital technologies for infectious disease surveillance, prevention and control

Background

Digital technologies offer a number of opportunities for infectious disease surveillance, prevention and control. Developments in the area of information and communication technologies (ICT) for public health surveillance can help make analysis more timely as well as increase capacity, while new data mining techniques and AI can help to detect early warning signs of disease outbreaks as people research or discuss their symptoms online.

Understanding up and coming technologies could help to improve situational awareness, and inform the coordination of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)’s infection control in response to outbreak events.

Goals

RAND Europe has been commissioned by ECDC to obtain an overview of the availability and use of digital technologies with potentially beneficial or disruptive impacts on public health key functions, focusing on infectious disease surveillance, prevention and control.

Methodology

This project will include:

1. A scoping review to obtain an estimate of the size and nature of the scientific literature available in this area.
2. A technical meeting with key experts to identify the digital technologies with the greatest beneficial or disruptive potential to impact public health key functions.