The Canadian health monitoring program BlueDot alerted its clients about the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak nine days before the World Health Organization (WHO) notified the public.
To achieve this prediction, BlueDot's AI algorithm analyzes foreign-language news, animal and plant disease networks, and official proclamations to identify a possible outbreak.
Once epidemiologists confirm the findings, clients are immediately notified. In addition, BlueDot has access to global airline data and can predict when and where the disease will spread.
In the case of the coronavirus, BlueDot correctly predicted that the virus would migrate from Wuhan to Bangkok, Seoul, Taipei, and Tokyo.
The 40-person company, launched by Kamran Khan in 2014, has a track record of success, including correctly predicting the location of the Zika outbreak in southern Florida. BlueDot reports are sent to public health authorities in dozens of countries and major hospitals surrounding outbreak epicenters.
Bill Gates has expressed his belief that pandemics are one of the greatest threats to humanity, and he is not alone. More than 12,000 coronavirus cases were confirmed in China, doubling since Wednesday.
More than 259 people have died and scientists are racing to develop a vaccine as the disease spreads to sixteen nations. Had BlueDot's alert prompted travel restrictions earlier, these numbers could have been far more contained.
With machine learning and natural language processing, data can be organized and handled with the urgency that infectious diseases demand. Algorithms like BlueDot and similar data-driven decision mechanisms will be essential for preserving the health of the global population as networks proliferate.
Text by Peter Diamandis