Devised digital prophets
How do you predict an outbreak? During the latest Zika epidemic, a Boston Children’s team went super digital: using local news reports, Google search trends and their own digital surveillance tool, Healthmap. The result: Their projections were close to actual numbers—and delivered weeks earlier.
This approach could help governments rush much-needed resources like diagnostic tests, vaccines and trained caregivers to soon-to-be-affected areas, saving millions of lives.