Famba, surveillance for emerging diseases

José Muñoz

Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Spain

Emerging infectious diseases, such as dengue, MERS-CoV-2 or SARS-CoV-2, pose a major threat to global health. Traditional surveillance methods implemented to detect and attempt to contain them rely on country reporting and often result in incomplete and delayed data. Hence the need to enhance the detection, anticipation and response capabilities of traditional surveillance systems through innovation.

In this regard, the researchers involved in this project intend to use a digital platform called Famba, which provides telemedicine services to international travellers, to offer a real-time surveillance system based on the health of these travellers. Additionally, the platform will serve as a data analysis tool to anticipate and identify potential infectious disease outbreaks.

The researchers will create a spin-off company to expand Famba internationally. They will also conduct a proof of concept in various centres across Europe, increasing the number of Famba users and evaluating its use to gather data on the health, climate and mobility of European travellers in order to implement the syndromic surveillance tool in different European contexts. The information obtained will be analysed using artificial intelligence techniques to identify patterns in the epidemiology of the disease that may be indicators of potential outbreaks. The ultimate goal is to improve preparedness and response to potential future threats from emerging disease.

FAMBA: international surveillance and data analytics. Platform for prevention of emerging pandemics

Stage 2