Big Data to prevent infectious disease
KT Corporation, a telecommunications company in South Korea, has signed an agreement on the use of Big Data in preventing infectious diseases with the Ghana Health Service, in a bid to help fight epidemics. The company’s disease prevention system analyses location-based information including roaming data that it collects and uses to guide its customers on preventing epidemics, as well as building a monitoring system that helps health authorities assess infection risk at the initial stage of an outbreak. It hopes that its technology will help people in Africa and other parts of the world. “We will help Ghana take the initiative in healthcare in West Africa,” said Yoon Jong-Jin, KT's Senior Executive Vice-President in charge of public relations. “We will go beyond Africa and push for disease prevention in other parts of the world where the infrastructure for healthcare and education is still developing.”
The company is seeking collaboration with foreign governments and international organisations on the use of Big Data and information technology in preventing the spread of infectious diseases. It is also calling on Asian countries to participate in its project and will seek to launch an epidemic prevention project with both the Lao Ministry of Health and the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH), a public affiliate of South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare.