Web-based system for informatics and decision support in geographic medicine

347 generic infectious diseases are distributed haphazardly in time and space; and are challenged by 342 drugs and vaccines. Over 3,000 pathogenic bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi have been described in human disease. An ongoing project for decision support and informatics will serve as a paradigm to demonstrate an approach to web-based systems for Geographic Medicine. The first module in the program generates ranked differential diagnoses based on signs, symptoms, laboratory tests, exposure history, country of acquisition and incubation period; and can be used to diagnose or simulate any infectious disease scenario. Additional capabilities include bioterrorism simulation and syndromic surveillance. The second module follows the epidemiology of individual diseases, including their global status and occurrence in each endemic country. As of 2010, this module contains three million words of text in 18,000 country-specific text notes; 32,095 graphs; 5,100 images (clinical, microscopic, life cycle, etc); 345 maps; 150,000 linked references; 10,200 outbreaks and 21,101 disease prevalence and serosurveys. The third module follows the pharmacology and usage of all anti-infective drugs and vaccines. The fourth module is designed to identify and characterize all species of bacteria, mycobacteria and yeasts. Application of such systems for use in diagnosis, surveillance and education will be discussed