4. Infectious Diseases in Finland
• Infectious disease
– A clinically evident illnesses caused by a microorganism, such
as viruses, bacteria, and fungi
– Transmitted through liquids, food, body fluids, contaminated
objects, airborne inhalation, or through vector-borne spread
• National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL, in
Finnish: Terveyden ja hyvinvoinnin laitos)
– Reports, monitors, and prevents the spreading of infectious
diseases in Finland
– Maintains Infectious Diseases Register (IDR)
5. The Procedure
Day 1:
First Day 3:
symptoms Consults a Day 4-7:
google doctor Diagnosis
Day 2: Day 4: Day ~14:
Sick at Analysis THL’s
home of the Infectious
samples Diseases
Register is
updated
7. Problems with the Procedure and THL’s
Infectious Diseases Register
• No forecast
• A series of analyses
needs to be performed Not useful for
• Data laboratory
– Not accurate enough personnel,
– HTML tables doctors,
– Not linked patients, etc.
– Reporting lag of two
weeks
9. Overview
• An application for monitoring the spreading (current
status, history, and forecast) of infectious diseases in
Finland
• Provides more accurate, linked, and real-time data
about various infectious diseases in Finland
• Presents the data in a nicely visualized and human-
understandable form (interactive map)
• Provides accurate estimate of the current level of
various infectious diseases (based on Google search
queries)
13. Benefits
• For laboratory personnel
– Fewer analyses of the samples to be performed
• For doctors
– More accurate diagnosis
• For health district
– Saves time and money
• For patients
– Faster recovery