Pre-spillover participatory community disease detection surveillance platform
Team Leader
Patipat Susumpow
Pre-spillover participatory community disease detection surveillance platform
Solution Pitch
The Problem
SARS, MERS, Avian Flu, Swine Flu, HIV, COVID-19—all of these viruses are zoonotic. They ‘spillover’ from animals to humans. The problem often lies in what we eat, and how we raise animals for eating.
The Solution
Participatory One Health Disease Detection (PODD) is a pre-spillover participatory community disease detection surveillance platform. Through a mobile application farmers, livestock owners, and local community members are able to photograph and document animal health events in real-time. The application sends these photos, along with observation notes, to local veterinarians and health officials. If enough animals are sick within a certain radius, or the local officials decide to investigate an animal, a response team is dispatched to handle the case appropriately. Any potential animal outbreak is detected early, and the spread is contained before it spills over to people in the community.
PODD currently has over 600 local government officials handling cases and over 10,000 local volunteers participating in personal disease surveillance.
Stats
PODD is directly impacting 20,000 livestock owners, volunteers, and local officials, and indirectly impacting 177,000 community members in provinces where PODD is implemented.
Market Opportunity
Covid-19, a single spillover event, caused the Thai economy to contract over 5 percent, seriously damaging its $60 billion tourism industry and putting 20 million informal workers at risk. There are 7,850 local governments in Thailand. Combined, they are willing to spend an estimated $4 million annually on community-based health reporting. In 2017, local governments committed to developing digital capacity to improve community services, opening up a key market for PODD. PODD seeks to expand to neighboring markets with similar health issues and a lack of community-based disease surveillance systems, such as Cambodia and Laos.
Organization Highlights
Won ASEAN ICT Award in 2017
Featured in BBC news’ World Hacks and BBC’s “People Fixing the World” podcast
Featured in PBS Newshour piece on tracking animal health to prevent outbreaks of human disease
Partnership Goals
PODD seeks:
Business strategy expertise to pivot PODD's model from a localized community project to a country/region-agnostic product/business
Partnerships with NGOs and governments to connect to new markets
Mentorship for funding and business development as PODD scales its model and products to multiple geographies and markets
What is the name of your organization?
Opendream
What is the name of your solution?
PODD
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Pre-spillover participatory community disease detection surveillance platform
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Bangkok
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Thailand
What type of organization is your solution team?
Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
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What specific problem are you solving?
SARS, MERS, Avian Flu, Swine Flu, HIV, COVID-19 - all of these viruses are zoonotic. They 'spillover' from animals to humans. The problem often lies in what we eat, and how we raise animals for eating.
What is your solution?
Participatory One Health Disease Detection (PODD) is a pre-spillover participatory community disease detection surveillance platform. Through a mobile application farmers, livestock owners, and local community members are able to photograph and document animal health events in real-time. The application sends these photos, along with observation notes, to local veterinarians and health officials. If enough animals are sick within a certain radius, or the local officials decide to investigate an animal, a response team is dispatched to handle the case appropriately. Any potential animal outbreak is detected early, and the spread is contained before it spills over to people in the community.
PODD currently has over 600 local government officials handling cases and over 10,000 local volunteers participating in personal disease surveillance.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
A study of PODD found that 73% of confirmed poultry outbreaks were contained within the community of origin, and the remaining 27% contained within neighboring communities before further spread.
Farmers and livestock owners are the immediate PODD beneficiaries, as they receive expert veterinarian care for their animals. They also protect the rest of their livestock as the animals are typically quarantined for further examination. Local health officials, whose responsibility it is to monitor possible outbreaks, receive considerably more relevant data to better do their jobs. They are able to monitor the status of sick animals in real-time from their offices as farmers take pictures and upload them to the PODD system. Lastly, the greater local communities are the longer-term beneficiaries as they are protected from potentially deadly outbreaks.
