IBM Launches Global Pandemic Initiative to Combat Infectious Diseases

Strategic Insights -

IBM and over twenty major worldwide public health institutions have joined forces to create the Global Pandemic Initiative, a collaborative effort to help stem the spread of infectious diseases. With growing concerns over potential outbreaks of new strains of disease, this initiative aims to leverage advanced analytical and computer technology to develop a global preparedness program for responding to potential infectious disease outbreaks around the world. IBM will bring its key technologies and establish healthcare "Innovation Centers" at its worldwide Research laboratories to work with the global healthcare community. The initiative's steering committee includes the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Scripps Research Institute, among others.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Global Pandemic Initiative is a collaborative effort between IBM and over twenty major worldwide public health institutions, including the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • The initiative aims to leverage advanced analytical and computer technology to develop a global preparedness program for responding to potential infectious disease outbreaks around the world.
  • IBM will contribute several of its key technologies to the initiative, including the Interoperable Healthcare Information Infrastructure (IHII) and the Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeller (STEM).
  • The IHII technology is designed to improve communication and collaboration among medical professionals and researchers by helping them collect and share health data.
  • IBM plans to build a community of users around the STEM framework, which can tap the information collected from IHII to develop models for how a disease is likely to geographically spread over time.
  • The collaboration also includes a planned initiative known as "Project Checkmate," which aims to predict the way viruses will mutate over time using advanced predictive techniques running on high-performance computing systems.
  • The initiative's steering committee includes the US Agency for International Development, the World Health Organization, and the Scripps Research Institute, among others.

Statistics:

  • Over 20 million people die from infectious diseases each year (Source: World Health Organization [1])
  • The threat of a pandemic is a definitively global phenomenon (Source: Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM's chairman and chief executive officer)
  • IBM plans to expand the role of IHII to include public health issues, responding to global calls for pandemic preparedness (Source: IBM)
  • The STEM framework can tap the information collected from IHII, along with additional information such as roadmaps, airport locations, travel patterns, and bird migration routes around the world (Source: IBM)
  • IBM's BlueGene supercomputer will be used to conduct advanced biological research on influenza viruses as part of "Project Checkmate" (Source: IBM)
  • IBM has established healthcare "Innovation Centers" at its worldwide Research laboratories to work with the global healthcare community (Source: IBM)

Sources:

  • IBM
  • World Health Organization
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • Scripps Research Institute
  • US Agency for International Development
  • Market Wire
  • Comtex News Network, Inc.