What’s Buzzing on your Feed? Health Authorities’ Use of Facebook to Combat Zika in Singapore

In 2016, Singapore grappled with one of the largest Zika outbreaks in Southeast Asia. This study examines the use of Facebook for Zika-related outreach and engagement by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the National Environmental Agency (NEA) from March 1, 2015 to September 19, 2016. Despite nearly equivalent outreach, MOH’s Facebook posts received more likes (µ=3.49) and shares (µ=30.11), whereas NEA’s posts received more comments (µ=4.55), with NEA posting mostly on prevention (N=30) and MOH on situational updates (N=24). Thematic analyses identified prevention-related posts as garnering the most likes (N=1277), while update-related posts were most shared (N=1,059) and commented upon (N=220). Outreach briefly ceased for two months after Singapore’s first imported case of Zika, but increased following the outbreak of locally-transmitted cases in August 2016. Public engagement was significantly higher during Zika, compared with prior Haze and Dengue outbreak. The results indicate the value of Facebook as a tool for rapid outreach during infectious disease outbreaks, and as a ‘listening’ platform for those managing the situation. We discuss implications for public health communication and research

Snake Alert Application

In 2008, an estimated 90,000 lives were lost to snake bites, with India being the most devastated [1]. Governments and health agencies spend time and money trying to curb this, but frequently fail because of the dynamic nature of snake threats. Snake Alert is a public health communication application, aiming to provide users assistance in reporting and being notified of snake sightings. First, prevention of snake encounters, by crowd pooling information on snake sightings based on geographical location. Next, the application allows users to upload photos of snakes upon each sighting, and with image recognition, and identifies the respective snake species. Lastly, the application provides onsite instructional self-treatment with specific advice based snake type. This application can be used to save lives, and provide accurate & dynamic information to people living in remote parts of the world

Visual design for a mobile pandemic map system for public health

Incidence and prevalence rates of dengue have increased over the years, and the disease is quickly becoming cause for concern within the public health community. Globally, 128 countries and slightly under four billion people are at risk of contracting dengue. In Sri Lanka, more than half of dengue cases originate in Colombo, which in previous years, used a manual pen-and-paper data management system, which meant that it was not possible to obtain or provide up-to-date information about the severity and spread of dengue. In 2015, two versions of a mobile application called Mo-Buzz Dengue were developed and launched in Colombo, Sri Lanka in order to overcome the challenges of the traditional management system by capitalizing on the rising affordability and ubiquity of mobile phone technology. To keep up with the dynamic nature of disease outbreaks, real-time data need to be visualized in a manner which facilitates discerning and comprehending these patterns. Hence, we used health maps in Mo-Buzz to effectively present this information. The first version of Mo-Buzz was for public health inspectors (PHIs), digitized data management as well as provided educational materials. The second version of Mo-Buzz was a source of information for the general public, a crowdsourcing platform to provide information relating to dengue transmission, and for health authorities to alert users to dengue-specific developments in their area. This paper illustrates the design considerations of the Mo-Buzz disease surveillance system for the general public. A draft scaled-down version of the PHI system was used to obtain feedback and make incremental design enhancements. Additionally, similar health maps were evaluated in terms of capability and usability. These findings were applied to identify future enhancements to the health map of Mo-Buzz Dengue.Nanyang Technological UniversityNational Research Foundation (NRF)This research is supported by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under its International Research Centres in Singapore Funding Initiative and administered by the Interactive Digital Media Programme Office. We wish to acknowledge the funding support for this project from Nanyang Technological University under the Undergraduate Research Experience on Campus (URECA) programme

Lessons From the Implementation of Mo-Buzz, a Mobile Pandemic Surveillance System for Dengue

Background: Approximately 128 countries and 3.9 billion people are at risk of dengue infection. Incidence of dengue has increased over the past decades, becoming a growing public health concern for countries with populations that are increasingly susceptible to this vector-borne disease, such as Sri Lanka. Almost 55,150 dengue cases were reported in Sri Lanka in 2016, with more than 30.40% of cases (n=16,767) originating from Colombo, which struggles with an outdated manual paper-based dengue outbreak management system. Community education and outreach about dengue are also executed using paper-based media channels such as pamphlets and brochures. Yet, Sri Lanka is one of the countries with the most affordable rates of mobile services in the world, with penetration rates higher than most developing countries.Objectives: To combat the issues of an exhausted dengue management system and to make use of new technology, in 2015, a mobile participatory system for dengue surveillance called Mo-Buzz was developed and launched in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This paper describes the system's components and uptake, along with other similar disease surveillance systems.Methods: We developed Mo-Buzz and tested its feasibility for dengue. Two versions of the app were developed. The first was for use by public health inspectors (PHIs) to digitize form filling and recording of site visit information, and track dengue outbreaks on a real-time dengue hotspot map using the global positioning system technology. The system also provides updated dengue infographics and educational materials for the PHIs to educate the general public.The second version of Mo-Buzz was created for use by the general public. This system uses dynamic mapping to help educate and inform the general public about potential outbreak regions and allow them to report dengue symptoms and post pictures of potential dengue mosquito–breeding sites, which are automatically sent to the health authorities. Targeted alerts can be sent to users depending on their geographical location.Results: We assessed the usage and the usability of the app and its impact on overall dengue transmission in Colombo. Initial uptake of Mo-Buzz for PHIs was low; however, after more training and incentivizing of usage, the uptake of the app in PHIs increased from less than 10% (n=3) to 76% (n=38). The general public user evaluation feedback was fruitful in providing improvements to the app, and at present, a number of solutions are being reviewed as viable options to boost user uptake.Conclusions: From our Mo-Buzz study, we have learned that initial acceptance of such systems can be slow but eventually positive. Mobile and social media interventions, such as Mo-Buzz, are poised to play a greater role in shaping risk perceptions and managing seasonal and sporadic outbreaks of infectious diseases in Asia and around the world

Epihack Sri Lanka : development of a mobile surveillance tool for dengue fever

Background: Dengue is a serious problem around the globe, with 3.9 billion people at risk of the disease. Sri Lanka has recently seen unprecedented rates of dengue with 4.3 times more cases than during the same period over the previous six years. The paper discusses the development of an integrated health systems framework, aided by mobile technology, to combat and contain dengue via a health hackathon in Sri Lanka. Results: The framework addresses the key functions of surveillance, health communication and civic engagement through innovations including digitisation of hospital forms; digital aid to Public Health Inspectors (PHIs); data consolidation and analytics; education for construction workers, GPs, and schools; and educating the general public. Conclusions: We present the impact of the disease burden in tropical countries, such as Sri Lanka, current technological solutions, and the process of developing the mobile application modules developed via the health hackathon.Published versio

FluMob: Enabling Surveillance of Acute Respiratory Infections in Health-care Workers via Mobile Phones

Singapore is a hotspot for emerging infectious diseases and faces a constant risk of pandemic outbreaks as a major travel and health hub for Southeast Asia. With an increasing penetration of smart phone usage in this region, Singapore’s pandemic preparedness framework can be strengthened by applying a mobile-based approach to health surveillance and control, and improving upon existing ideas by addressing gaps, such as a lack of health communication. FluMob is a digitally integrated syndromic surveillance system designed to assist health authorities in obtaining real-time epidemiological and surveillance data from health-care workers (HCWs) within Singapore, by allowing them to report influenza incidence using smartphones. The system, integrating a fully responsive web-based interface and a mobile interface, is made available to HCW using various types of mobile devices and web browsers. Real-time data generated from FluMob will be complementary to current health-care- and laboratory-based systems. This paper describes the development of FluMob, as well as challenges faced in the creation of the system.MOH (Min. of Health, S’pore)Published versio