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Tele-epidemiology is the application of telecommunications to epidemiological research and application, including space-based and internet-based systems.

Tele-epidemiology applies satellite communication systems to investigate or support investigations of infectious disease outbreak, including disease reemergence. In this application, space-based systems (i.e. GIS, GPS, SPOT5) use natural index and in-situ data (i.e. NDVI, Meteosat, Envisat) to assess health risk to human and animal populations. Space-based applications of tele-epidemiology extend to health surveillance and health emergency response. Internet-based applications of tele-epidemiology include sourcing of epidemiological data in generating internet reports and real-time disease mapping. This entails gathering and structuring epidemiological data from news and social media outlets, and mapping or reporting this data for application with research or public health organizations. Examples of such applications include HealthMap and ProMED-mail, two web-based services that map and e-mail global cases of disease outbreak, respectively.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs often refers generally to telehealth for applications linking communication and information technologies such as telesurgery and telenursing, to healthcare administration.

Clinical Applications

 * Provides real-time information about disease prevalence across populations to public health and citizens domains globally.
 * Diminishes disease risks to the public, especially vulnerable populations.
 * Enhances the ability of managing the proliferation of communicable pathogens.
 * Can be used as a management tool in public health to discover, assess, and act on epidemiological data. For example, gathering and identifying disease relevant risk factors helps to identify treatment interventions, implement the prevention strategies that will lessen the effects of the outbreak and improve clinical outcomes . Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002-2003 and H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009, which killed an estimated 300,000 people before its eventual containment are two examples that show the important of Tele-epidemiology.
 * Can be useful for trades, travellers, public health agencies and federal governments, and diplomacy facilitating globalization to estimate the risk and disease prevalence.
 * Public health agencies and federal governments might take advantage of Tele-epidemiology for predicting the propagation of communicable diseases.
 * Provides users and governments with information for early warning systems. Rift Valley Fever is an acute infectious disease of livestock and sometimes of humans, and is propagated by mosquito bites . This vulnerability to this disease increase during the rainy months since mosquitoes oviparity mostly is done by rainfall, which result in the potential for RVF communicability. Tele-epidemiological EWS in Senegal and Southern Mauritania was helpful with mapping RVF-risk for zones that could potentially become occupied by mosquitoes (ZPOM). Similar techniques for developing an EWS have been used in the Mediterranean, South America, and Asia. Therefore, this tool could provide disease knowledge regarding a predicted areas for possible vulnerability, which enhances the governments' intervention strategies.

Non-Clinical Applications

 * Relevant data can be used for research and is widely accessible through existing internet outlets.
 * Data can be disseminated through internet reports of disease outbreak for real-time disease mapping for public use . The application of HealthMap and ProMED-mail, are two of such internet-based systems, which demonstrate considerable global health utility and accessibility for users from both the public and private domains.
 * HealthMap has an internet-based interface, which is presented as an interactive map with search functionality, such that a user may query the system for a specific disease term and, where appropriate, it will display the prevalence and propagation of that disease on the map . Presents a real-time mash-up epidemiological data for use with disease surveillance and outbreak detection . HealthMap currently provides information relevant to acute events, rather than to chronic conditions, since the acute incidents are more prone to be reported widespread than long term diseases and conditions. HealthMap currently gathering, filtering, and displaying data from 11 sources, themselves representing some 20,000 websites (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) and generates an average of 300 reports per day.
 * ProMED-mail [Pro-Monitoring Emerging Diseases-mail (PMM)] provides real-time epidemiological data on emerging infectious diseases and outbreaks, globally to its subscriptions . Content filters include e-mail subscriptions for alerts with globally aggregated data, as well as filters for zoonotic or botanic outbreak content, for example. PMM currently has more than 60,000 subscriptions with different professional backgrounds throughout 185 countries in the world.

Advantages
Space-based tele-epidemiological initiatives, using satellites, are able to gather environmental information relevant to tracking disease outbreaks. S2E, a French multidisciplinary consortium on spatial surveillance of epidemics, has used satellites to garner relevant information on vegetation, meteorology and hydrology. This information, in concert with clinical data from humans and animals, can be used to construct predictive mathematical models that may allow for the forecasting of disease outbreaks.

Web-based tele-epidemiological services are able to aggregate information from several disparate sources to provide information on disease surveillance and potential disease outbreaks. Both ProMED-mail and Healthmap collect information in several different languages to gather worldwide epidemiological information. These services are both free and allow both health care professionals and laypeople to access reliable disease information from around the world.

Disadvantages
Space-based methodologies require investment of resources for the collection and management of epidemiological information; as such, these systems may not be affordable or technologically feasible for developing countries that need assistance tracking disease outbreaks. Further, the success of space-based methodologies is predicated on the collection of accurate ground-based data by qualified public health professionals. This may not be possible in developing countries because they lack basic laboratory and epidemiological resources

Web-based tele-epidemiological initiatives have a unique set of challenges that are different from those experienced by space-based methodologies. Healthmap, in an effort to provide comprehensive worldwide information, contains information from a variety of sources including eyewitness accounts, online news and validated official reports. As a result, the site necessarily relies upon third party information, the veracity of which they can't be responsible for.