Prevent spread of epidemics in the world, using ICT

Source: Report's proposed governance model led by international organizations

The UnitedNations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will shape the world agenda for at least the next 12 years. Governments, private sector, and the civil society adopted the 17 global goals to ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda.

The idea that suggests that businesses are here to create value for their shareholders only, at the expense of the society, is gradually becoming obsolete. This tremendous awareness created by the agenda mentioned above is setting a trend and is forcing strategists to look at their market with both eyes. 
Because of this “Mobility Age” we’re in, no other industry than ICT is better positioned to enable the achievement of the global goals.

Representing Ericsson group, I had the opportunity to join an international cross-functional team of experts in the Working Group on Epidemic Preparedness-Preventing the Spread of Epidemics using ICT, which was established by the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development. The work group was chaired and coordinated by Korea Telecom group. The objective of this international effort was to develop a proposal that addresses the challenge of preventing the spread of epidemics in the world using ICT and present it at the UN general assembly meeting in September 2018 in New York.

This report  has been developed through an iterative and collaborative process drawing on expertise from the members of the Broadband Commission Working Group. The coordination of experts and the development of the content were provided under the supervision of Korea Telecom group. In addition, critical contributions were made by work group members from the World Bank Group, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), GSMA, Ericsson, health experts and scientists. The Working Group met online or offline on a quarterly basis, reviewed material, exchanged insightful ideas and discussed the strategic trajectory of the report.

Infectious diseases and epidemics outbreak have followed the history of human beings for ages, from the “Plague of Athens”, the first recorded infectious disease outbreak to modern times epidemics such as Ebola and MERS. Growing international exchanges, increase in population and urbanization, intensification of global climate and environmental changes, and inadequate systems of disease prevention and control are the leading causes of severe epidemics in modern society. An epidemic outbreak could cause the loss of many lives and have a devastating economic impact estimated of 60 billion US dollars loss per year.

Mobile industry

Mobile technology has experienced a rapid technical development, increasing network coverage, and an exponential increase of cell phones user rates all over the world. According to Q2/2018 Ericsson MobilityReport, there are around 5.5 billion subscribers globally.

Mobile networks have brought voice and internet services to billions of people around over the last 25 years. At the current trajectory, mobile broadband will provide network coverage to around 95% of the world’s population by 2022.

Mobile industry has a great potential to deliver life-saving information even in the most remote and resource poor areas. Additionally, it offers an effective contribution to public health initiatives in support of achieving the health outcomes related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while being economical, effective, and sustainable.

Big data availability

The explosion of data from different sources; mobile network, IT services is a great opportunity to address this challenge. Different type of data could be used in the fight against epidemics for analytics and/or simulation: genetic data, mobile network’s Call Data record (CDR), roaming data, Cell phone mobility, Social media data, Location-based information data, and you name it.

Various technologies exist to collect, analyze, and report various epidemics-related data. Using different sources of data is important to create an accurate view of the epidemic situation. The simultaneous collection of CDRs, roaming data, IoT data, location-based data and social media data will provide the Analytics platforms with enough information to produce accurate reports, that could help governments and organizations to take the right decisions.

The report proposes three important recommendations:

1. Regulation for Safe Personal Data Utilization: Currently, many countries around the globe have privacy protection laws in place. However, this should not lead to the loss of opportunities to prevent the spread of epidemics in an early manner.
2. Establishment of epidemics data sharing/monitoring system: Data sharing and utilization among nations around the world is essential to effectively fight epidemics.
3. Expansion of global governance: There is a need for global governance to be jointly led by international organizations of various fields, such as UN, ITU, and WHO. international organizations can include the establishment of epidemics-related regulations and policy guidelines that governments around the world can refer to and the promotion of the private-public-international community participation to build an integrated system.

You are encouraged to comment, suggest and keep the dialog vivid on this important topic that will positively impact us all.

Note: this blog has been published simultaneously in the Ericsson Technology for good blog