Saturday, October 24, 2009

CIS-8020 Assignment-2 VM Swine Flu Cases In U.S - Using Google Visualization API

Assume we are a working in the national department of disease control. The country is in the grips of a Swine Flu Pandemic. The President has declared a national emergency. The need of the hour is to have a co-ordinated nationwide response to the epidemic. An effective response is dependant on having real-time update on the spread of the Swine-Flu. All emergency personnel, federal and state healthcare agencies and hospitals need to have upto-date information about the impact of Swine flu in their state. This data is going to be critical to prioritize the shipment of Flu Vaccines and other critical medical supplies needed to combat this epidemic.

Using the Google Visualization API - Intensity Map is an effective way to keep track and publish the information on the spread and effect of Swine Flu. The Gadget uses a simple shared excel spreadsheet to record the data and the maps are updated instantaneously. By providing update access to the spreadsheet to key departments or agencies across different areas in all the states, we can ensure that accurate and timely information is obtained and that the information is easily available to everyone.

The ease of integrating the gadget, elimination of the need to write and maintain complex code , elemination of the need to transfer this data and associated complexities from multiple locations to a central location before publishing are the some of the major advantages of using this gadget.




The source data for this prototype can be found at this link

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tzF8dlHGhRLiBSlv6YAK-sg&single=true&gid=1&output=html

Disclaimer: All numbers are shown for demo purposes only. These numbers do not indicate the actual number of Swine flu cases/deaths.

6 comments:

  1. This is a very innovative use of an API. Great job as usual, Vivek.

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  3. really appreciative thought.relavent to current situation.....Great idea.. vivek...

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  4. Hi Vivek,

    I wish my local health agencies were using something like this. With budgetary constraints becoming the norm, this is a very economical and effective means to communicate an urgent issue. I live outside the Metro Atlanta area, so mass media is limited. Solutions such as this would allow infection rates to be updated frequently, and used to assess prudent public health response options.

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  5. This is interesting b/z Swine Flu is spreading out worldwide. This chart visualizes the speed of the illness, which will raise the awareness of the public. Hope one day it will be controlled by effective measures.

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  6. Thanks Asha, Michael, Vivian and Steve.

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