RAPID: SCH: NODE: A Real-Time Smartphone Epidemiological Tool

University Of Rochester, Rochester NY

Investigators

Abstract

In West African countries, cell phone penetration can range from 40 to 80% and upwards, with over 2 million Android devices in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia alone. The investigators propose the delivery of a smartphone application that will improve care-seeking, epidemiology, and prevention by monitoring civilian location patterns, habits (e.g. walking, sleeping), and resource needs (e.g. hand sanitizers or gloves). This project addresses three key problems. First, how well can smartphones sensors support real-time monitoring and prediction of the scale of an infectious disease (in this case Ebola) compared to stochastic epidemiology models? Second, how can smartphone communications be used to educate a population about prophylactic behaviors and change such behaviors? Third, is mHealth (mobile health) sustainable in West Africa, or is the infrastructure too underdeveloped to support such innovations over the long term? Our project is novel in that it uses passively obtained location information, sensor data, and dynamic surveys to understand the health and potential for infection among the population in real time to supplement CDC, WHO and UN efforts. This RAPID proposes to seek to use machine learning to classify data obtained from phone sensors (e.g. location in a village with high disease rate, reduced movement, self-photo of rashes) along with survey questions to determine if users are developing symptoms that may be similar to Ebola. The project will also look at human mobility patterns compared to stochastic epidemiological models to determine the efficacy of real-time cell phone tracking. The coupling of these sensor modalities will be used to model users as a noisy sensor and compare how this information agrees or predicts historical trends. Finally, the project will use features of behavioral science to explore what feedback does to affect user behavior, such as, knowing about their risk for Ebola.