Digital Epidemiology and COVID-19 Pandemic
A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Biosciences and Bioengineering".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 September 2023) | Viewed by 4180
Special Issue Editors
Interests: digital health; real-world evidence; patient expertise
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The COVID-19 pandemic has required the rapid adaptation of scientific research to produce effective and efficient responses. Ultimately, the pandemic has resulted in the transformation of practices, at present increasingly relying on the use of information technology (IT). In this context, digital epidemiology, which relies on the use of new sources of information from digital traces (e.g., mobile phone, social networks, and webpage access logs), gradually appears as a useful complementary approach to traditional models of the surveillance, detection, and monitoring of diseases and therapeutic responses.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, various research teams around the world have attempted to combine epidemiological techniques and methods together with advanced analytics obtained from data science to develop and offer decision-making tools to health-policy decision makers. The way in which these novel approaches, both technological and methodological, have been operationalized in Africa deserves particular attention, in order to better understand how the responses and preparation for re-emergency have been organized in different countries. In fact, when compared to other regions, the African experience during this pandemic seems unique regarding the relatively lower number of reported cases and deaths caused by COVID-19. Many factors may explain this phenomenon.
In this Special Issue of Applied Sciences, we invite the submission of papers that report on the specific experiences of how IT sources of data and/or advanced analytical methods have been used to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic in different countries over the world, especially in Africa. This includes a broad perspective comprising and not limited to data warehouse building/exploitation, as well as the IT-based monitoring of vaccination strategies and vaccination- and/or drug-related effects reported by populations or health professionals (e.g., released on social networks or other digital routes).
Prof. Dr. Benjamin Guinhouya
Prof. Dr. Didier K. Ékouévi
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- Africa
- health data
- IT
- SARS-CoV2
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