There are so many new healthcare-related iPhone apps sprouting up each week that we can't possibly write about all of them, but one really jumped out at us--possibly because of who's behind it, but more likely because the national media picked up on it. An informaticist at Children's Hospital Boston, with help from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, developed an app called Outbreaks Near Me to track outbreaks of the H1N1 flu virus.
What's cool about Outbreaks Near Me is that it piggybacks on the capabilities of HealthMap, an online tool to track, map and disseminate information about infectious diseases. HealthMap co-founder John Brownstein told UPI that the new app goes further, letting users set up alerts whenever outbreaks are reported in their area ,or if any user enters data suggesting that the disease has spread to another location.
To learn more:
- read this UPI piece