Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Google launches Google Flu Trends Australia

Will track the daily spread of the flu

Google is to launch a local version of its Google Flu Trends application, which launched in the US last year.

The application is based on the theory that searches for flu-related topics are closely correlated to the actual spread of flu.

By tallying the daily searchers for flu, Google Flu Trends can theoretically provide early detection of flu outbreaks.

Google says that developed the local version of its Flu Trends application by working with historical seasonal flu data from the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL), as well as its own anonymised, aggregated historical search data, to build a flu model for the state of Victoria.

It then extrapolated the model to produce flu models at a national and state level for the rest of Australia -- apart from Tasmania and the Northern Territory for which it doesn't have a large enough volume of search queries to be accurate.

Heath Kelly, the head of the Epidemiology Unit at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory said that Influenza experts recommend gathering information from multiple sources to best understand and monitor influenza activity.

As such, Google Flu Trends provided a valuable and timely additional source of data that can help identify trends in influenza activity.

"Having additional sources of data will be even more important than usual in the current influenza season, with the circulation of novel influenza A (H1N1), commonly known as swine flu, already established in Victoria,” he said in a statement.

“The initial data from Google look promising, and researchers from VIDRL and the University of Queensland look forward to working with Google to further refine the monitoring of influenza in Australia."

In April Google began compiling information from swine flu-related Google searches in Mexico to map out how the disease is spreading through the country.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Google, University of Queensland, University of Queensland
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: Google, swine flu
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Securing Vital Infrastructure
    A unified approach to information security can help modern vital infrastructure providers deal with evolving IT threats without compromising on communications or the demands of an increasingly mobile workforce. Flexible policies, combined with quality inbound threat detection, deep content inspection and encryption capabilities can help organisations to mitigate the risks – not just from outside the organisation, but also within it. Read this whitepaper.
    Learn more »
  • Best Practices for Secure Enterprise Content Mobility
    To secure mobile devices while enabling employees to share data securely, organisations need a comprehensive and flexible solution for secure enterprise content mobility. A secure enterprise content mobility solution complements Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions and enables mobile workers to easily share data with other authorised users, while ensuring that data is always secure and IT operations are always compliant. Read this whitepaper to learn: How the popularity of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is creating new security challenges; Why MDM is useful, but not sufficient; How enterprise content mobility provides an essential layer of security and control for organisations with mobile users.
    Learn more »
  • Seven Steps to Effective Data Governance
    Creating a framework to ensure the confidentiality, quality, and integrity of data – the core meaning of data governance – is essential to meet both internal and external requirements, such as financial reporting, regulatory compliance, and privacy policies. At its best, data governance roots out risk – both business and compliance risk – by increasing oversight. This white paper provides seven steps for taking such an approach, concluding with a real world example, taking an incremental approach using a repeatable framework that is a practical, proven strategy that any size organization can implement to suit their immediate and long-term needs and budget.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments