The document summarizes an information and communication technology forum on disease surveillance in the Mekong Basin held in Thailand in April 2009. It discusses efforts to create an early warning system for infectious disease events using various information sources. Key topics included estimating epidemiological patterns, analyzing social and infrastructure impacts, and classifying over 100 diseases and organisms using an online tool called InSTEDD Evolve.

1. EVOLVE MEKONG BASIN DISEASE SURVEILLANCE (MBDS) INFORMATION COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY FORUM APRIL 2 ND –3 RD , 2009, MUKDAHAN PROVINCE, THAILAND Taha Kass-Hout, MD, MS Director, Global Public Health and Informatics Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases, and Disasters

2. SE Asia Early Warning & Response A collaborative early warning and response space for latest health-related events in SE Asia

12. InSTEDD Evolve Related items (e.g., News articles) are grouped into a thread. Threads are later associated with events (hypothesized or confirmed). InSTEDD Evolve : ( http://instedd.org/evolve ) Tag cloud and semantic heat map Delete/Recycle an Item Expert-generated Tags RSS Publishing Generate hypotheses and add evidence to the Basket Save filter (by keyword, tag, topic, location, and time) and email subscription Recycle bin An event is monitored through a thread of items

13. InSTEDD Evolve InSTEDD Evolve : ( http://instedd.org/evolve ) Map view

14. InSTEDD Evolve Filter feature which automatically filters content by topic of interest Filter feature which automatically filters content by radius InSTEDD Evolve : ( http://instedd.org/evolve )

15. InSTEDD Evolve Auto-generated (machine-learning) tags. These tags are semantically ranked (a statistical probability match). Users can further train the classifier by accepting or rejecting a suggestion. Users can similarly train the geo-locator by simply accepting or rejecting and updating a location. InSTEDD Evolve : ( http://instedd.org/evolve )

17. InSTEDD Evolve InSTEDD Evolve : ( http://instedd.org/evolve ) Tracking the recent Avian Influenza Outbreak in Egypt (reports started to appear late January 2009). Notice the pattern of reported incidents along the Nile river.

18. Evolve Architecture and Processes Best Poster Award for Improving Public Health Investigation and Response at the Seventh Annual ISDS Conference, 2008 http://taha.instedd.org/2008/12/best-poster-award-for-improving-public.html

19. Acknowledgment

20. Through Funding from…

22. Thank You! InSTEDD 400 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 120 Palo Alto, CA 94301, USA +1.650.353.4440 +1.877.650.4440 (toll-free in the US) [email_address] Cambodia, Photo taken by Taha Kass-Hout, October 2008 “ this pic says it all- our kids are all the same- they deserve the same ”, Comment by Robert Gregg on Facebook, October 2008