conFLUence Flu News You Can Use

By Melissa Kelley

Influenza (the flu)

• Highly contagious respiratory infection caused by influenza viruses

• On average annually in the U.S, 5% to 20% of the population gets the flu (15-60 million people)

• Over 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu complications

• About 23,600 people die from the flu-related causes

Project Conceptualization

• Initial vision: CDC Challenge (risk communication)

• Change in plans:– XML feed issues– Lack of real-time data

• Site for officials and emergency managers in pre-event and beginning of emergency phase– Understand potential community risks and

capacity– Understand risks and capacity of other locals

Data Sources• CDC website provided data in Excel, XML,

RSS, and JSON formats• Health Indicator Warehouse and US

Census Bureau provided health and relevant demographic data in Excel or Shapefile formats

• Health Indicator Warehouse, Medline and CDC APIs for integrating additional flu information (XML, RESTful, SOAP)

• Darthmouth Atlas of Health Care• Free/ open source resources

Site Functionalities

• Interactive: Find hospitals, doctors or pharmacies near you; zoom to your location

• Custom features: Local places API, drop down menus

• Layers: multiple layers with a legend and custom display

• New pages: help page and informational page

Site (Dys)Functionalities

The Site

Future Vision

• Incorporate XML dynamic feed• Incorporate remotely queried Health

Indicator Warehouse• Broaden the applicability to multiple

audiences (one stop shop)– Public– Practitioners– Researchers– Media

Thanks!