Public health innovation: Are we there yet?

Did you know that approximately two billion people travel each year by air? If you are an infectious disease specialist, you read that statement as:  “uh oh... infectious diseases to travel by airplanes globally even faster.”

Dr. Kamran Khan, physician at Mt. Sinai Hospital, enthralled a packed room of public health practitioners with his presentation on Bio.diaspora – an innovative project with a mission to understand global airline transportation network as a conduit for international spread of infectious diseases.

Bio.diaspora also works together with Healthmap project (www.healthmap.org) – an exciting project that automates real-time monitoring of online health news currently in seven languages through official and unofficial sources. Early awareness of epidemics could be used to facilitate timely risk analyses for infectious diseases.

He was followed by Niall Wallace, president of Infonaut, who talked about some innovative projects in health in Ontario.  Both Kamran and Niall talked about the challenges of being an innovator in the province.

Dr. Arlene King, chief medical officer of health, had earlier set the stage for adopting innovation in public health by calling upon public health practitioners to embrace new ideas, new technologies and new ways of doing things.

“We need to set sights on a goal and not be going in circles by figuring out the best process,” said Dr. Vivek Goel, president and CEO of OAHPP, as he summed up the session and urged the provincial leaders to pay special attention to innovators and encourage innovation in the province.