A new era of epidemiology: Digital epidemiology for investigating the novel coronaviral disease (COVID-19) outbreak in China

Abstract

UNSTRUCTURED: A novel pneumonia like disease outbreak named the 2019 Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by a novel coronavirus, a.k.a. the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2, has swept China and then globally. Public health measures that showed effectiveness in previous infection outbreaks (e.g., facemask wear, quarantine) were implemented in this outbreak. Available multidimensional social network data that take advantage of recent rapid development of information and communication technologies allow for an exploration of the disease spread and control via a modernised epidemiological approach. By using spatiotemporal data and real-time information, we can provide more accurate estimates of spread patterns related to human activities and more efficient responses to the outbreak control. Two real cases during the COVID-19 outbreak demonstrated the applications of emerging technologies and digital data in monitoring human movements related to the disease spread. Although the ethics of digital epidemiology is still under debate, the cases reported in this article may provide insight into identifying more effective public health measures, and the future application of such digital-directed epidemiological approach in controlling the infectious disease outbreak and offer an alternative and modern outlook on addressing the long-standing challenges in population health.