Sifting through social media messages has become a popular way to track when and where flu cases occur, but a key hurdle hampers the process: how to identify flu-infection tweets. Some tweets are posted by people who have been sick with the virus, while others come from folks who are merely talking about the illness. If you are tracking actual flu cases, such conversations about the flu in general can skew the results. To address this problem, Johns Hopkins computer scientists and researchers in the School of Medicine have developed a new tweet-screening method that not only delivers real-time data on flu cases, but also filters out online chatter that is not linked to actual flu infections.
Recent news from The Johns Hopkins University
This section contains regularly updated highlights of the news from around The Johns Hopkins University. Links to the complete news reports from the nine schools, the Applied Physics Laboratory and other centers and institutes are to the left, as are links to help news media contact the Johns Hopkins communications offices.
Johns Hopkins Researchers in Robotics, Public Health to Receive Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers
Three Johns Hopkins faculty members, who study robotics, biostatistics and international health, are among 94 researchers selected this year to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The awards, announced this week by President Barack Obama, are the United States government’s highest honor for scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers.
You Are What You Tweet: Tracking Public Health Trends from Twitter Messages
Twitter allows millions of social media fans to comment in 140 characters or less on just about anything: an actor’s outlandish behavior, an earthquake’s tragic toll or the great taste of a grilled cheese sandwich. But by sifting through this busy flood of banter, is it possible to also track important public health trends? Two Johns Hopkins University computer scientists would respond with a one-word tweet: “Yes!”
New Johns Hopkins Institute Studies Environment, Energy, Sustainability and Health
Drawing on faculty expertise in environmental science and engineering, public health and other areas, The Johns Hopkins University has launched an Environment, Energy, Sustainability and Health Institute to promote research and education in topics ranging from green energy practices to climate change and related health issues.
