SickCity Gives Real-time Disease Detection.
Last year Google unveiled the Google Flu Trend Tool which follows any increased flu-related search terms to determine where in the U.S. flu outbreaks may be occurring.
Well, now a creative computer programmer has put together an application that allows you to track the latest epidemic trends in your city via twitter (and soon facebook).
Called SickCity, it monitors twitter status messages in realtime, looking for keywords like “flu”, “chicken pox”, “fever”, etc. The information is then plotted on charts that show 30 day trends in each individual city. So far, only 10 cities are being followed:
New York, London, San Francisco, Los …read more
Google Flu Trend Tool: A Public Health Service or An Invasion of Privacy?
November 12, 2008 by Liz Lewis
Filed under Announcements, Computers, Health, Misc., Morning News, Prevention
Hands up anyone who, when they are feeling unwell or concerned about a health issue, does a google search?
If you put your hand up, you are in the majority. Seems that these days, instead of heading to the doctor or the local pharmacist, we all head to the internet. It’s quick, convenient, helpful, and apparently, also trackable as a new google tracking tool proves.
Google debuted the Google Flu Trend Tool on Tuesday.
Working on the theory that it’s more likely to be a flu outbreak in places where flu-related search terms are currently popular, this tracking tool follows any increased flu-related search terms …read more
