Outbreaks Near Me: A Crowdsourced Surveillance System Capturing COVID-19 and Influenza Data from North America

Session Date: April 24, 2021

Session Description: Outbreaks Near Me is a crowdsourced, syndromic surveillance system that infers Influenza-like and COVID-like illness from user reports on their health. Modeled after Flu Near You, this system captures self-reported symptom data from individuals in the US, Canada, and Mexico. In addition to how users feels and symptoms, data is collected on healthcare utilization, vaccination status, and diagnostic testing. Age, gender, and zip code are collected as well. Outbreaks Near Me data is freely available to support public health work and is currently used by health departments, researchers, and federal. This session will focus on how participatory surveillance systems work in COVID-19 surveillance, what data can be captured, and how this data can be used by public health professionals and researchers.