DTAC turns disease hunter

DTAC turns disease hunter

The operator sees potential in using mobility data for research purposes

Mr Adaktusson, left, Ms Buckee, top right, and Mr Engo-Monsen discuss the practical applications for using mobility data during an outbreak or natural disaster during an exclusive interview.
Mr Adaktusson, left, Ms Buckee, top right, and Mr Engo-Monsen discuss the practical applications for using mobility data during an outbreak or natural disaster during an exclusive interview.

Mobility data from mobile devices can be used alongside other analysis techniques to map the risk of dengue fever in Thailand, according to a study by Telenor Group in partnership with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Mahidol-Oxford Research Unit (MORU) and Total Access Communication (DTAC), the operating unit of Telenor in Thailand.

The project is an extension of a study by Telenor to determine Covid-19 infection areas in Norway using similar techniques, as the company seeks to publicise the use cases and potential of its mobile tracking technologies.

The dengue study used past DTAC mobility data from its 11 million subscribers from Aug 1 to Oct 19, 2017 to determine if the researchers could map potential outbreaks of dengue fever in the country.

"Mobile operators are in a good position to map out travel patterns across the whole country. When you know certain diseases are spread from humans, this kind of information is quite valuable," said Kenth Engo-Monsen, senior researcher at Telenor Research.

"When you count the number of travellers from one tambon to another, this information does not reveal anything about individuals, but it will say something about the travel pattern of the population in that region."

He said the tracking data used in the study is completely anonymous and the company cannot differentiate between individual DTAC users' identities --unlike tracking and tracing apps used to stop the spread of Covid-19 such as Thai Chana and Mor Chana rolled out by authorities.

Dengue fever is not transmitted from human to human, only mosquito to human.

However, if a person travels to a new area with the disease, they could spread the virus through mosquitoes.

In 2020, the Thai Bureau of Epidemiology reported more than 71,000 cases of dengue fever and 51 deaths.

"Our study shows geographically distant provinces in Thailand that are strongly connected by human travel will have a greater likelihood of dengue incidences than weakly connected provinces of the same distance," said Caroline Buckee, associate director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

"Mobility data is key to helping us see where the disease will spread next, which will give local health officials advance warning and thus time to prepare for the next outbreak."

The study found in some cases mobile tracking data was able to improve existing methodologies for tracking dengue fever outbreaks, but effectiveness varied, especially in areas along national borders with high migration.

"Overall, no single modelling approach can be expected to provide an optimal early warning system across all areas, even within a single country or region, or across all time horizons," said the study.

"Adaptive, mosaic forecasts are likely to provide the most effective approach. This type of approach could be easily integrated within the data platforms recently developed in Thailand, which are flexible enough to accommodate different modelling approaches and forecasts."

Ms Buckee said the research team concluded its approach could be used to create dengue risk maps for health departments and hospitals.

"The mobility data significantly improved our ability to predict where dengue fever would spread next in Thailand," she said.

However, the potential to use mobile tracking data to fight dengue fever is still in the early stages and Telenor has not signed any deals with public health officials to incorporate the technique into existing disease fighting efforts.

The company does not have any plans to develop this project out into a revenue stream for Telenor, said Mr Engo-Monsen.

Telenor is developing other use cases for its mobile tracking data, such as for use in national disasters like hurricanes in Bangladesh.

"Given the current pandemic, a lot of models should probably be tested, researched and evaluated in advance," he said.

According to Mr Engo-Monsen, when Covid-19 emerged, MORU, a network of academics and partners, formed to try to do some translational work with mobility data and information from social media.

The group also works with local governments and policymakers to help them understand what the analysis means for their constituencies.

"You can imagine in the context of lockdowns and travel restrictions, this kind of data is important in informing decision makers about how well their restrictions are being followed," he said.

"We've really seen a global uptake of these approaches during this pandemic. My guess is this type of approach with a variety of data streams is going to become a routine part of health system considerations and decision making during pandemics and natural disasters."

Marcus Adaktusson, chief of corporate affairs for DTAC, said the concept of using aggregated, anonymised mobile data for disease prevention is close to being available for application in Thailand.

Authorities must open a pilot scheme with clear objectives on what they want to accomplish, he said, noting this is part of a disease prevention plan.

Proper safeguards must be in place to ensure the data is treated according to relevant data protection and privacy laws, said Mr Adaktusson.

"Once a full analysis is completed, authorities need to have a plan on how to turn these findings into action or a policy," he said.

DTAC is in the cenceptual stage for development of methodology for outbreak prediction and the next step is to share this information with public health authorities, said Mr Adaktusson.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT