Role of Participatory Health Informatics in Detecting and Managing Pandemics: Literature Review

Area of Science:

• Public Health Informatics
• Epidemiology
• Digital Health

Background:

• Participatory health informatics (PHI) is increasingly recognized for its potential in disease outbreak detection and pandemic management.
• Key aspects like citizens' roles, data collection/processing methods, and relevant data types remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To clarify the role of PHI in pandemic detection and management.
• To identify relevant data types and methods for PHI in public health crises.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive literature review was conducted across five major databases (PubMed, CINAHL, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Cochrane Library).
• 53 studies were selected from 417 citations, focusing on the application of PHI in epidemic and pandemic contexts.
• Data were extracted and narratively synthesized.

Main Results:

• Research predominantly focused on influenza-like illnesses and COVID-19, with some studies on Ebola, Zika, and measles.
• Key application areas identified were crisis communication and disease outbreak detection.
• While various data processing methods were reported, crucial information was often missing.

Conclusions:

• Limited studies hinder firm conclusions for many diseases, but PHI shows potential for diseases like COVID-19.
• Social media and online search data analyzed via PHI correlated with disease patterns and enabled earlier detection than traditional methods.
• PHI can significantly contribute to disease and pandemic monitoring and management.