New iPhone Application Tracks H1N1 Swine Flu Outbreaks

There is a new free iPhone application available called “Outbreaks Near Me” that tracks and reports local outbreaks of infectious disease.
Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston and the MIT Media Lab developed the application. The app combines the iPhone’s GPS with outbreak tracking data from HealthMap.org, a website that mines the Internet for information on outbreaks.
"If people know what’s happening around them, they might be more likely to take basic precautions," such as washing their hands and getting vaccinated, said HealthMap co-founder John S. Brownstein, an assistant professor at the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program.
Users can also submit their own outbreak reports and photos right from their own phones.