In preparation for the bird flu pandemic, the University of Iowa has unveiled a new tool to help public health officials better predict when the next outbreak will strike. This will help planners coordinate resources and vaccine supplies more effectively, while targeting those locations most vulnerable to infection.
“Surveillance efforts of state, federal and international health agencies focus their time almost exclusively on the spread of influenza today and yesterday, with no systematic attempts to quantify what might happen tomorrow. This tool will now fill the void in the surveillance tools available to the public.”
“The real goal behind the tool is to change the way people think about public health information. We are trying to come up with a new way to plan for the future, one that is easy to use, efficient, and inexpensive.”
The Avian Flu tool is a great example of how IT systems can aid in the planning and innovation for the future. In order to stay ahead of this rapid pace of innovation, Change Agents must make these kinds of technological investments.
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