The HealthMap Foodborne Dashboard enables public health agencies to improve foodborne illness surveillance and reporting using social media monitoring.

Project Overview

The HealthMap Foodborne Dashboard identifies and geo-locates social media posts that contain food poisoning complaints and allows public health departments to take action.

Social media posts related to foodborne illness can be viewed and sorted, filtering by region and status. Enrolled public health departments can easily respond to the posts through the dashboard to request additional information.

Healthcare Context

While there are traditional methods for reporting foodborne outbreaks, food poisoning is one of the most unreported diseases in the U.S. Approximately, 1 in 6 Americans experience foodborne illness each year, but only a small subset report this to their local public health department. The HealthMap Foodborne Dashboard aims to supplement traditional surveillance measures of foodborne outbreaks using novel social media data, which allows public health officials to take action and reach a population that may not be reporting their illness.

Interested in learning more about the HealthMap Foodborne Dashboard?

Visit HealthMap Foodborne Dashboard’s website here or send an email at healthmap.foodborne@childrens.harvard.edu