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1st post Digital epidemiology is an exciting field

Sociology

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1^st post

Digital epidemiology is an exciting field. With millions of Americans utilizing technology every day, public health is discovering new ways to use the abundance of digital footprints we leave behind. Digital epidemiology collects data in public health facilities that support analyzing the disease's distribution and control. According to Salathé, 2018, digital epidemiology centers on digital data and can be evaluated using smartphones, the internet, and other electronic gadgets. The digital data aims to recognize disease patterns and health determinants in a community and promote health and disease prevention. Applying big data has a significant impact on the healthcare system and research. However, it also heightens many ethical issues.

A few ethical considerations with this data collection system are patient privacy, data integrity, informed consent, risk of error, and accountability. These profound challenges are related to health value for individuals and communities, individual rights, and other moral obligations. Salathé, 2018 suggests examining the Ethical National Committee of Bio-Ethics guidelines regarding ethical consents when utilizing these data types. It is essential to ensure that patient's medical and personal information is well protected, and the patient has the right to know how their data has been used. Also, the nurse must give complete information and education about consents and how the data is stored, transferred, and processed. A nurse and a patient must be transparent regarding this matter. Nevertheless, humans are prone to mistakes and cannot guarantee that these guidelines are followed and can resolve ethical issues. Therefore, it is vital to establish policies to ensure that nurses and other disciplines adhere and utilize this technology safe for the patient's best interest.

2^nd post

Epidemiology has come a long way since the times of John Snow. Like him, epidemiologists used to travel on foot having direct contact with the people and diseases they were studying. Now this information and data is available at their fingertips. Mobile devices, social media, and newer communication technologies have made it easier for epidemiologists to explore disease spread through the rapid development of information (He et al, 2020). We have seen this more than ever with the COVID 19 pandemic. These technologies have given information about real-time disease spread patterns and how human activity affects it. With the wide availability of disease information, ethics must be considered regarding this information. Digital epidemiology draws big data from personal information, public health, and information technologies (Vayena et al, 2015). Much of public surveillance is done through the use of our mobile devices; including what we purchase, our social media conversations, or our web searches (Vayena et al, 2015). Have you ever noticed while scrolling Facebook, you see an ad for a product that you “googled” a week ago? Information derived from these sources does have a beneficial part to play in epidemiology, but sometimes the manner in which this information is extracted may violate the privacy of people. Ethics of big data are questioned as we learn where the line must be drawn. When is this surveillance too much?