Flu mapping: Google's big chance

Filed under Health Care, by Stephen Baker on April 30

While some of my colleagues are clearly skeptical about digital health, such records might make it easier for health authorities to mount a defense against epidemics—including the one bearing down on us now. They could search for patterns among those affected, digging far beyond the usual demographic details. That’s not possible at this point.

But tech companies like Google can mine search queries to track the spreading epidemic. And I’m betting that it should be easier to track digital signs of the disease once it crosses the border. This is because richer populations create far more digital data—with the Internet, cell phones, prescriptions, grocery data, etc.

While we’re on data, here’s a piece I haven’t found yet. Many Mexican cities and towns have close ties with U.S. cities. Migrants move to places where their friends and family can find them shelter and jobs. New York City is popular among people from the state of Puebla. I visited one town in the state of Michoacan where nearly everyone had relatives in Watsonville, Calif.

So wouldn’t it be useful to have a map of Mexicans in the United States, and then to focus more of the health efforts on the U.s. sister cities of the most affected parts of Mexico? There must be a language or anthro department in some university that has done this research. Does anyone know if such a map exists?