JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

With the evolution of digital media, areas such as public health are adding new platforms to complement the traditional systems of epidemiological surveillance. Participatory surveillance and digital disease detection have become innovative tools for the construction of epidemiological landscapes with the participation of citizens, anticipating traditional sources of information. Strategies such as these favor the timely detection of warning signs for outbreaks and epidemics in the territory.

Objective:

To describe and analyze the Guardians of Health platform, a project conducted during the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro and officially used by the Ministry of Health for the monitoring of outbreaks and epidemics.

Methods:

This is a mixed study with two dimensions: (1) descriptive - for the study of participatory surveillance platforms; and (2) ecological cross-sectional study to be carried out using secondary data from participatory surveillance platforms available in the GitHub public digital repository. Based on syndromic signals, the information subsidy for decision-making by policy makers and health managers becomes more dynamic and assertive, using this type of source as an early route to understanding the epidemiological scenario.

Results:

The main results of this research were the validation of participatory surveillance platform as complementary source to the epidemiological surveillance done in the country as observed in mass gathering 2016 Olympic Games. The platform Guardians of Health had 7,892 users and 12,873 posts about health situation. Of these, 226 users with diarrheal syndrome, 102 users with respiratory syndrome and 231 with rash syndrome were identified.

Conclusions:

Digital transformation is fact. The struggle against those who continue to ignore this change encumbers the process of transformation, leaving all those in the context of public health hostage to obsolescence. It is hoped that professionals, new and old, researchers, managers or actors in the routine of epidemiological surveillance, become aware and allow themselves to join new tools that improve the information management for decision making and knowledge production. When we get a recurrence on this allowance of new things that promote health advancement, we may be able to get on the path of more intelligent, efficient, and pragmatic disease control.