Medical Research

Disease Mapping Uganda Malaria Surveillance project – uses smart phones and laptops in rural areas to keep a central database of Malaria out breaks. Electricity is not available in remote areas. Therefore solar panels are used to power computers. This reduces the cost from $25000 to $540 per year. Health Map – Is an online website which informs people about disease out breaks in countries. It reduces spread of diseases as people would be informed not to visit countries with disease outbreaks through the website. Data integrity can be a problem as same reports could be uploaded twice because of quick reporting. This would create unnecessary panic

Human Genome Project The goal is to create a database of all the genes in the world and allow everyone access to it. This would help develop new cures to diseases, as it allows all scientists free access to it. Social issues are that tests are not 100% accurate and can cause controversy for those who are tested positive. E.g. Health insurance. Privacy also becomes an issue, as data is personal.

Distributed Disease Research Simulating the affect of disease requires a lot of power and time to produce good results. The solution to this problem would be to use different computers around the world to supply the power.

Drug Interaction Models Models are safer way to test affect of drugs on people, instead of using animals or humans Scientists around around the world have created human body parts such as the heart with all the valves to test effects of drugs to combat heart diseases. HIV medicines require a lot of trial and error. However, an international database makes it easier for hospitals to share data regarding medicines to speed up the testing time and find out the best medicine. In the future, doctors would be able to create models for specific people. However, computers cannot replace physical experiments as they are not 100% accurate.