IBM Researchers Helping Middle East Fight Disease

According to this online news article, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has developed database software to help Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority combat avian influenza and food-borne diseases, including salmonella and shigella. The web-based programme is designed to allow public health organisations to quickly report, share, and act on medical information across borders. As stated by a project researcher, "[t]his technology automates critical information sharing, letting medical professionals protect the population's health and well-being, and helping shield economies against emerging threats to public health."


Despite barriers such as war and terrorist attacks, public health officials in these countries (which share a common waterway, the Jordan River) have been stalwart in cooperating to operationalise this project with technology originally created for the United States Department of Health and Human Services.


In the development phase of the project, which was launched in 2003, fax and telephone were the primary means of communication. In May 2008, the online database became accessible. As stated by the researcher, "IBM collaborated with the Global Health and Security Initiative....The IBM Foundation provided the equipment and database software, while researchers at labs in San Jose, California, and Haifa, Israel, donated their time to the project."

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