手机能监控疾病了【南宫NG·28】

发布时间：2024-11-15 丨 浏览次数：

In a new study out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, health researchers make the case for using real-time cell-phone data to track and mitigate major disease outbreaks.在麻省理工学院展开的一项新的研究中，身体健康研究员明确提出用于动态手机数据追踪和遏止根本性疾病脑溢血。Unfortunately, several barriers—including privacy concerns and a lack of data legislation—are likely to stop this kind of information from ever getting to researchers.意外的是，研究人员在提供这些数据时遇上了一些障碍，如对隐私的忧虑、缺少与数据涉及的法律。Earlier this year, researchers at MIT set out to see if they could reasonably predict how a disease might move through a city by looking at commute routes.今年早些时候，麻省理工学院的研究人员打算要想到他们否能通过观察通勤路线来对疾病在城市中的传播方式作出合理预测。

Through a deal with Singapore telecom Singtel, MIT researchers were able to get access to four months worth of anonymized cell-phone location data from 2011.通过与新加坡电信公司合作，麻省理工学院的研究人员顺利提供了2011年起 4个月的电子邮件手机定位数据。The disease they were tracking was a 2013 outbreak of dengue fever, a virus transmitted via mosquito that manifests in headaches, muscle pain, and vomiting.他们要跟踪的是2013年愈演愈烈的登革热，这是一种通过蚊子传播的病毒，症状展现出为头痛、肌肉疼痛和腹泻。The researchers hypothesized that the disease traveled around the city along the same routes as peoples phones did.研究人员猜测这种疾病在城市的传播路径和人们手机的移动路径是完全一致的。When they tested their predictions against census data for 2013 and 2014, which recorded the number of cases over the course of two years, they found the models were accurately estimating the growth trajectory the disease.他们将自己的预测与2013年和2014年的人口普查数据展开了对比，该数据记录了两年间的病例数量，他们找到模型精确估算了疾病的发展轨迹。

The study is remarkable for its ability to examine the pattern of dengues spread as it moves inside smaller regions like cities and towns. Typically, researchers study disease at a much broader level—think states and countries. But smartphone data allows researchers and scientists to see more detailed information about the way people interact with their environment and each other.该研究值得注意的一点是能研究登革热在城市和城镇等小范围内的传播模式。一般来说，研究人员会在更加普遍的层面上研究疾病——如州和国家的范围。但智能手机数据使研究人员和科学家能看见人们如何认识环境以及他人的更加详细信息。

This data can be really useful in an emerging situation, says Emanuele Massaro, a scientist at cole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland and the lead author on the paper. He argues that scientists, NGOs, and political decision makers should have access to cell-phone data more broadly, so they can more easily contain disease outbreaks.瑞士洛桑联邦理工大学的研究员Emanuele Massaro是这篇论文的第一作者，他说道：“这一数据在应急情况下知道很简单。”他指出“科学家、非政府的组织和政治决策者们”应当更加普遍地提供手机数据，以便他们能更容易地遏止疾病愈演愈烈。

本文来源：南宫NG·28-www.sandingip.com