The Toronto-based company Infonaut is advancing the development of GIS systems for disease surveillance. Infonaut recently received funding from the Canadian federal GeoConnections program to develop a web-based real-time GIS disease detection and outbreak response application.
Infonaut is working with Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Public Health (KFL&A PH), Queen’s University Public Health Informatics (QPHI), the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre (SSMIC) and ESRI Canada towards applied disease surveillance (“syndromic surveillanceâ€) for respiratory and gastrointestinal conditions. The map-based surveillance and alert system will use real-time anonymous respiratory and gastrointestinal patient information to improve response to disease outbreaks.
This is one of a growing number of public health monitoring systems that revolve around the use of geospatial modeling and analysis for disease surveillance.
