Data for Good

Technology has created an opportunity to leverage “big data” in ways that were previously impossible. These vast and complex electronic health datasets have the potential to provide groundbreaking health insights, and with new ways to analyze them, these insights are more attainable than ever before. This means that areas such as clinician decision support, disease surveillance, and population health management can be used to improve the health outcomes of people around the world.

Google+ Harvard COVID-19 Public Forecasts

In partnership with Google Cloud, HGHI released the Google-Harvard COVID-19 Public Forecasts. These forecasts are available for free and provide a projection of COVID-19 cases, deaths, and other metrics over the next 14 days for US counties and states.

 “The COVID-19 Public Forecasts model produces forecasts at the critical jurisdiction of public health action—the county. Coupled with the work of the Harvard Global Health Institute’s county-level COVID-19 Suppression Metrics, the COVID-19 Public Forecast Model will allow for targeted testing and public health interventions on a county-by-county basis. By providing accurate, timely predictions of cases, infections, hospitalizations, and deaths to both policy makers and the general public, it will enhance our ability to understand and respond to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic,” explained HGHI’s Tom Tsai. 

You can download and explore the data here.

Google Cloud Partnership to Accelerate COVID-19 Research

HGHI is partnering with Google Cloud to enable researchers to harness the power of the Cloud in their fight against COVID-19. As the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, research teams are moving quickly to bring their work to the next level. To support this vital effort, Google is offering a pool of $20 million in Google Cloud credits to researchers studying COVID-19. To administer these credits effectively, the Harvard Global Health Institute has gathered a diverse team of scientific advisors from a range of disciplines to review submissions. 

Companies, government agencies, non-profit organizations and academic institutions are doing important work to battle this disease. By identifying promising research opportunities and applying Google Cloud’s capabilities to support them, we can move the needle together.

Since the partnership launched in mid-April, over 150 proposals have been funded with over $7 million in Google Cloud research credits distributed. This partnership has funded projects such as Northeastern University’s large-scale epidemiological models and Harvard Medical School’s ultra-large virtual drug screenings, as well as economic impact modeling, data integrity assessments, medical imaging, and genotyping. 

Tracking Foodborne Illness Hotspots

Work smarter, not harder. That is the motto driving the partnerships with HGHI, Google and various health departments across the United States. By harnessing the power of search and location data, we are able to alert health departments to which restaurants may be contributing to foodborne illness. This saves valuable time, limited resources and most importantly, lives. Read more about this work.