Amidst dengue cases rising in Bengaluru, the state health department of Karnataka has come up with a newly developed disease surveillance dashboard and a mobile application. The IT capital witnessed the launch of the initiative on Friday. The novel intervention is developed in partnership with AI Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK) at Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Artificial intelligence in dengue surveillance will help to track and monitor the real time dengue situation across the state.
The dashboard provides a map of predictive outbreaks in all parts of Karnataka.
“The application and dashboard will assist policymakers and public health officials in preparing for future outbreaks and managing disease control activities by providing and analyzing the trends in specific regions. We have employed artificial intelligence to predict any surge in infections four weeks in advance,” said Rohit Satish, director, health data initiatives, ARTPARK, IISc.
Dengue, a vector borne infection has raised its ugly head once again during the monsoon in all metros of India.
How does it help?
The dashboard helps in analysis and real-time data streaming through visualizations. It gives an overview of the number of persons tested, suspected, confirmed with dengue and mortality reported, said Satish. “It has an interactive map that shows the districts that are at higher risk. We also have age filters to track pediatric and geriatric cases that are being reported. It will help the health department to understand the dynamics of the disease in the region,” he added.
While data collection is challenging, the application would help in streamlining the process, said Dr Bhaskar Rajkumar, director, healthcare, ARTPARK, IISc. “The application is designed for the health care workers who are into daily analysis of data collection of all diseases. As of now, we are able to give 60% accurate predictions which will improve in the coming days,” he said.
So far, there has only been manual documentation of data which henceforth will be in the form of digital records with photos, videos of mosquito surveillance along with geotags, says Dr KV Trilok Chandra, BBMP Special Commissioner, Health.
Dengue cases reported in any hospital, government or private will be recorded in the dengue mapping of the dashboard. The objective is to be aware of every dengue case reported in the city and act upon to prevent any future outbreaks, said Dr Chandra.
The AI intervention will be used for capturing the surveillance of all other diseases in Karnataka in days to come, said Karnataka Health Commissioner D Randeep.
The AI based technology will help in capturing the accurate data needed for understanding the spread of an infection in different geographical areas and plan for needy intervention to prevent an outbreak, said Randeep.
Takeaways
- The state health department of Karnataka has developed a disease surveillance dashboard and a mobile application to track the spread of dengue in the state.
- Till now, there has only been manual documentation of data which henceforth will be in the form of digital records with photos, videos of mosquito surveillance along with geotags.
