The point man at the Centers for Disease Control dealing with the scariest diseases, biggest disasters and public health challenges will give the Atlanta CEO Council insight on how social media is fast becoming an important tool in responding to public health challenges.
Dr. Ali Khan, director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response will discuss the big idea Operation Dragonfire, a crowdsourcing platform designed to improve communication and information sharing during a crisis.
The purpose of Dragonfire is to obtain and provide real-time public health information before, during, and after a public health emergency to responders using web-enabled social media and crowd sourcing. It is intended to integrate strategies among federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, and community organizations and to innovate and transform how public health information is gathered, analyzed, disseminated, and used.
The vision for this platform is to enable innovative surveillance data collection and collective assessment techniques to enhance public health interventions, improve the timeliness of responses, and reduce morbidity and mortality.
About Ali Khan
Dr. Khan joined CDC and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps in 1991 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer and over the past decades has led and responded to numerous high profile domestic and international public health emergencies, including hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, monkeypox, avian influenza, Rift Valley fever, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the Asian Tsunami (2004), and the initial public health response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
Dr. Khan’s professional career has focused on emerging infectious diseases, bioterrorism and global health security. He maintains the Public Health Matters blog and has been personally engaged in guinea worm and polio eradication activities.
