Europe installs public health threat monitor

Computer Active reports that the European Commission has launched an automated medical intelligence system to trawl the net looking for early warning signs of public health threats, such as epidemics, large-scale industrial accidents and bio-terrorism.

"MediSys scans over 1,000 news sites and 120 public health databases in 32 languages to provide health authorities with real-time knowledge.

By providing real-time information, MediSys will enable public authorities to react more quickly to potential health threats, according to the Commission.

Based on the level of articles retrieved and the detected keywords, an automatic alert is sent by email and SMS to decision-makers who are on permanent standby.

For example, in the recent foot and mouth outbreak, MediSys detected a sudden jump in news reports and automatically sent alerts to public health officials across Europe."

emily | 4:18 PM | Health Issues and SMS Alerts |
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