There is oodles of innovative and highly creative work taking place worldwide in the form of Mashups, however this concept is only slowly making it’s way into the Healthcare Industry. The idea of a Web 2.0 Mashup is that as more and more primary data sources are made available to the masses, free exchange of information will result in innovation as individuals and groups begin to mine it, combine it and present it in new and exciting forms. The end result of this process is a Mashup.
By far, the most recognizable Mashup in the world is Google Maps and it’s therefore not surprising that this is where we are seeing the first and most interesting work being done in the Health 2.0 space. A innovative and extremely well presented example of the potential for Mashups in Healthcare is Health Map.
HealthMap brings together disparate data sources to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal health. This freely available Web site integrates outbreak data of varying reliability, ranging from news sources (such as Google News) to curated personal accounts (such as ProMED) to validated official alerts (such as World Health Organization). Through an automated text processing system, the data is aggregated by disease and displayed by location for user-friendly access to the original alert. HealthMap provides a jumping-off point for real-time information on emerging infectious diseases and has particular interest for public health officials and international travelers.
Check out the site at: Health Map
Possibly Related Articles:
