Take part in public health surveillance and flu tracking. Check out "Flu Near You".
Updated March 07, 2014.
The CDC's FluView flu tracking system has always been considered the gold standard in tracking flu activity across the United States. Because they base their reports of flu activity on actual confirmed cases of the flu and reports from physicians and health departments, there is a sense that the numbers are accurate. However, we also know that the actual reported and documented illnesses are far fewer than those that actually occur because many people that get the flu don't go to the doctor and are never officially diagnosed.
Google's Flu Trends works differently but also aims to track flu activity based on flu-related searches people input into the search engine giant. Launched in 2008, Google Flu Trends has for the most part been fairly accurate in reporting generalized flu activity across the globe. They have compared their results to traditional flu reporting systems throughout the world and had the results published in the journal Nature.
Newer to the flu tracking scene is the website and mobile app, Flu Near You. Based on gathering data using crowdsourcing, the Flu Near You website and app tracks the flu by gathering weekly data from users. If you sign up on the free website or mobile app, you will get weekly reminders asking you to fill out a quick questionnaire about any symptoms you may have experienced in the past week. The program then gathers that data and provides information on a map showing where flu activity has been reported in your area. It is currently available for use by anyone over the age of 13 in the United States and Canada.
You can also find available flu vaccines near you.
How Did It Get Started?
Flu Near You was started by public health expert Dr. Mark Smolinski of the Skoll Global Threats Fund, the American Public Health Association, Boston Children's Hospital and Health Map. According to Mark, the goal is to "have a tool to gather the data we need to answer the big questions like how does influenza spread through communities and how effective is the vaccine?".
"The opportunity to interact with people, the whole citizen scientist movement, we thought this was a great way to let people see what surveillance was all about. Keep it simple, keep it as anonymous as we possibly can. The goal is to keep it open and available to everyone."
Flu Near You was started in 2011 and launched it with the American Public Health Association. In the first year "we had 8,000 or 9,000 people. Last year we went from 40,000 users to 80,000 in a matter of weeks after it got picked up by CNN. This year we have gone over the 100,000 user mark."
How Does the Data on Flu Near You Compare to Other Flu Tracking Tools?
"On the site, you can click and see how the data compares to what is being reported by Google Flu Trends and the CDC." Although the number of users is still growing - and in this type of business, the more users the better - flu activity reported to Flu Near You has been fairly consistent with other flu tracking methods.
Mark says "We are learning and growing organically. The flu vaccine finder is built into the site and it breaks down who has what vaccine and where. It was designed to be on the web. When we partnered with the APHA, they said it has to be on the web because more people have access to the web. But when we did our first user survey after the first year, the overwhelming response was to make this an app." You can now access Flu Near You through the website or the mobile app, although the website has a few more functions than the app does.
"It's about public health surveillance. We want to put the public in public health."
It's a simple idea that could prove very useful in this age of information sharing. It will be interesting to see how the project continues to grow and develop as a public health monitoring system.
To Sign Up for Flu Near You or learn more about it, visit their website - Flu Near You.
The CDC's FluView flu tracking system has always been considered the gold standard in tracking flu activity across the United States. Because they base their reports of flu activity on actual confirmed cases of the flu and reports from physicians and health departments, there is a sense that the numbers are accurate. However, we also know that the actual reported and documented illnesses are far fewer than those that actually occur because many people that get the flu don't go to the doctor and are never officially diagnosed.
Google's Flu Trends works differently but also aims to track flu activity based on flu-related searches people input into the search engine giant. Launched in 2008, Google Flu Trends has for the most part been fairly accurate in reporting generalized flu activity across the globe. They have compared their results to traditional flu reporting systems throughout the world and had the results published in the journal Nature.
Newer to the flu tracking scene is the website and mobile app, Flu Near You. Based on gathering data using crowdsourcing, the Flu Near You website and app tracks the flu by gathering weekly data from users. If you sign up on the free website or mobile app, you will get weekly reminders asking you to fill out a quick questionnaire about any symptoms you may have experienced in the past week. The program then gathers that data and provides information on a map showing where flu activity has been reported in your area. It is currently available for use by anyone over the age of 13 in the United States and Canada.
You can also find available flu vaccines near you.
How Did It Get Started?
Flu Near You was started by public health expert Dr. Mark Smolinski of the Skoll Global Threats Fund, the American Public Health Association, Boston Children's Hospital and Health Map. According to Mark, the goal is to "have a tool to gather the data we need to answer the big questions like how does influenza spread through communities and how effective is the vaccine?".
"The opportunity to interact with people, the whole citizen scientist movement, we thought this was a great way to let people see what surveillance was all about. Keep it simple, keep it as anonymous as we possibly can. The goal is to keep it open and available to everyone."
Flu Near You was started in 2011 and launched it with the American Public Health Association. In the first year "we had 8,000 or 9,000 people. Last year we went from 40,000 users to 80,000 in a matter of weeks after it got picked up by CNN. This year we have gone over the 100,000 user mark."
How Does the Data on Flu Near You Compare to Other Flu Tracking Tools?
"On the site, you can click and see how the data compares to what is being reported by Google Flu Trends and the CDC." Although the number of users is still growing - and in this type of business, the more users the better - flu activity reported to Flu Near You has been fairly consistent with other flu tracking methods.
Mark says "We are learning and growing organically. The flu vaccine finder is built into the site and it breaks down who has what vaccine and where. It was designed to be on the web. When we partnered with the APHA, they said it has to be on the web because more people have access to the web. But when we did our first user survey after the first year, the overwhelming response was to make this an app." You can now access Flu Near You through the website or the mobile app, although the website has a few more functions than the app does.
"It's about public health surveillance. We want to put the public in public health."
It's a simple idea that could prove very useful in this age of information sharing. It will be interesting to see how the project continues to grow and develop as a public health monitoring system.
To Sign Up for Flu Near You or learn more about it, visit their website - Flu Near You.
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