Outbreak Watch helps Windows Phone users keep track of the latest disease trends

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

Keep track of global contagion trends with Outbreak Watch

If you’re into diseases, viruses, contagions or STDs, you’ll want to check out the new app Outbreak Watch. Wait, did we just write that sentence?

Although somewhat of a niche app, for people in health-related fields (or if you just happen to be a CDC Biohazard Level 4 virologist) you’ll definitely want to check out Outbreak Watch. The app itself is beautifully Metro with clean black backgrounds and bold, text driven data compiled from “social networks”.

Let’s step back a moment. The app is part of AgileMedicine who’s globally known for their role in healthcare data management.  There was the “Now Trending Challenge” proposed by the US government (specifically the U.S. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, or just ASPR) with the goal of collecting trending data from Twitter and analyzing it for latest trends in disease. This app is the result of that challenge.

Data is collected on Twitter and then analyzed for disease-trends by the Biosurveillance Network. Oh yeah, we forgot to mention there’s a Biosurveillance Network made by Agile Medicine. You can read more about that here: http://www.outbreakwatch.com/home/about.

Snapshot from the Biosurveillance Network website

Needless to say, this is all very cool stuff and now you can pretend to be Dustin Hoffman (circa 1995) by using the official app called Outbreak Watch.

Getting back to that app, it has a general trending graph, alert index and numbers compiled in the last 24 hours. Slide to the right and now you can geographically isolate the data worldwide, by U.S. state or by country.  From there you can see what diseases are on the rise and which are on the decline. For instance, STDs are down today in New York (giggity) but Cholera and mosquito borne disease are up…damn.

Finally, there is a Twitter feed for Health Watch (@Health_Watch) which gives frequent updates on medical news and a Live Tile that features the latest Alert Index.

Outbreak Watch is a very well designed app for a great cause. While the focus is niche, anyone can pick it up for free and take a gander as the info collected. You can even pretend to be that hardnosed scientist that no one listens to and mutter to yourself “Oh my god…” when looking at the data for extra drama.

Pick up Outbreak Watch here in the Marketplace for Windows Phone (regional availability may vary) and visit Agile Medicine for more info about the project.

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been here covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics and ran the projectors at movie theaters, which has done absolutely nothing for his career.

20 Comments
  • Now I can keep an eye out for the zombie apocalypse. Woohoo!
  • +1
  • +1 for this cooolest App which ive been looking for a long time. I once used one similar App (Temperature Wireless Monitoring ) to watch my baby's tempereture.U installed one App and u can watch ur babys' health. thats really cool and im curious about how it work! can any one tell me the truth.
  • +1
  • Awesome! I am totaly "into" STDs.
  • lmao thats what I thought xD
    any app to check potential ...carriers... for STDs? No? Thats bad :/
     
    edit: wait, they do that by collecting data on social networks? So they really expect people to proudly tweet about their new STD? I feel so conservative right now :(
  • I'm not so sure data is as simple as some guy named Bill Tweeting "I gots the gonorrhea!" but rather it has to be meet certain criteria. What those criteria are I'd be curious about but seeing as this data, rules and contest is run by the US gov't and medical companies, my bet is it's somewhat nuanced ;-)
  • I still like the image of Bill tweeting :D
    This article was quite entertaining though, gotta get the app and surprise some people tomorrow by reminding them of the STD of the day... oh my :p
  • Could you give me that Dubin book? :)
  • There's Beck and Thaler there but no Dubin ;-)
  • Thanks for this post Daniel as I happen to be a CDC Biohazard Level 4 virologist.
  • If you're are, that's the coolest thing I've heard in awhile and I'm jelly. Can I have a tour? lol
  • Do you have a CDC Biohazard virology suit?
  • This app is broken, it had no clue I have genital warts... Rip off!
  • you first have to make a tweet about it, tomorow it will now
     
    along with a few other people, but what the heck
  • Hmm try holding your phone to your crotch for a while. It may or may not help ;)
  • No new in windows phone ri8 nw i just hate ri8 nw windows phone...no
    new lock pattern, no new apps,, no new updats,, no new screen savers,,
    no new unlock clocks,, wat can i do m just bored wid windows phone and
    no gamez all gud gamez r paid i have windows ri8 nw :-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(
  • try another bottle of vodka
  • Gotta love the use of "viral green" as the accent color.
  • App doesnt work at all. Can't download data.