Military Algorithm Can Predict Illness 48 Hours Before Symptoms Show

Link to article on NextGov

U.S. service members are strong but they’re still people, and people get sick sometimes. But when one gets sick at the last minute, that can have serious repercussions on their unit’s ability to execute critical missions. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency, or DTRA, is trying to get ahead of this problem by developing a predictive algorithm that knows whether a service member is falling ill—due to anything from a cold to exposure to biological weapons—up to 48 hours before they start to show any symptoms.

Can you imagine the business applications of this technology? We could calculate scheduling of workers with far better outcomes for the business. It would also have use on college campuses and other large organizations.

a reply to: machineintelligence

very interesting - but my reading of it suggests that its no use as a " spot test " - ie prior to boardng an international flight .

the proceedure requires a prior dataset of a persons health metrics - thats fine for the military ad companes etc

and as it mentions bio warfare exposure

if - as an example - the NY USPS , NYPD and FDNY personel were all signed up to this monotoring - it would give vital warning of a bio-weapon attack in the city - and location - enabling treatments // vaccination if availiable to be implimented early

good stuffs S&F

a reply to: ignorant_ape

That's why I was mentioning any large organization using this algorithm could find usefulness in it. That would include Healthcare practitioners like large hospitals or they have a big data set of health information on workers.

The cost of buying that technology would make me sick. I do not think it is practical, I have a very strong immune system, in fact it over reacts sometimes. I start to get a bug and my body hits it hard and it goes away quickly. The flu lasts about a day or two. But I get colds, it seems they have to run their course sometimes, other times they last a day.

Trouble is that the body hits things too hard sometimes, if I have dirt in a cut it does not heal, same with slivers or ingrown hairs. I have to get the crap out then it heals quickly. I have come to learn that if I lower histamine foods the healing is faster. Most people need histamines when they get sick, they are a curse for me. Just eliminating the histamine foods and foods that destroy the enzyme that breaks down histamine for a few days and I heal fine.

a reply to: machineintelligence

The amount of money it would take to do these tests would be prohibitive for hospitals. Simple stuff like once a year PPD are being discontinued due to the cost effectiveness.

It probably will contain things like information from normal doctors of what sort of lurgies the normal population in that area are seeing so if you send a group of soldiers into the area theres a good chance they'll catch it and also if there is a lurgie knocking around in one area don't send the troops from that area out if possible for a few extra days so they dont infect others.

Its probably easier with military as theres more data available as the average person feeling a bit rough may just tough it out or if its the weekend just duvet the weekend away and there will be no data recorded.