"Cell phones represent an extraordinary tool to provide location-based service. You can search for restaurants near you. Why not understand what is happening around you in public health?" — John Brownstein, Children's Hospital Boston

Elizabeth Cooney of the Boston Globe's White Coats health blog reports on a new iPhone app that allows users to see and report local H1N1 outbreaks.

John Brownstein of Children's Hospital Boston and Clark Freifeld of MIT's Media Lab today announced Outbreaks Near Me, a free application designed for Apple's iPhone or iTouch devices that allows users to see information about infectious disease outbreaks where they are. The application, available here, is based on HealthMap, which gathers, evaluates, and maps data about emerging outbreaks based on Google searches, news reports, blogs, and chats in addition to traditional official sources. on a new iPhone app that tracks H1N1 outbreaks.

Her blog post is interesting in its own right — your TalkBack editor plans to go right out and download the application — but perhaps even more illuminating are the fairly knowledgeable comments (scroll down to see them).

Although I was asked to allow the app to use my location, all that does is drop a pin approximately somewhere on the northeastern coast of the United States. To actually see anything "nearby" I had to double tap the screen 12 to 13 times.

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