What if we Could Predict Dengue? an AI4PEP’s Award-Winning Solution
Imagine the lives that could be saved if we could predict a dengue outbreak before it even happens. This vision is what drove Diyah Utami Kusumaning Putri and her team from Artificial Intelligence for Pandemic and Epidemic Preparedness (AI4PEP) Indonesia to develop ExplainDengue. It is an AI-powered dengue outbreak prediction system that recently won 1st place in the People’s Innovation Award at the 2024 AI4GHI (Artificial Intelligence for Global Health Innovation) Global South Challenge funded by IDRC-Canada. Participants are challenged to create AI solutions that address climate-sensitive health threats while ensuring equity in health outcomes. Pushing innovative and practical strategies through multidisciplinary collaboration.
So, what makes ExplainDengue stand out? This project uses neurosymbolic Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), which is a cutting-edge approach that combines deep learning with symbolic reasoning. But it wasn’t just about coding and algorithms, this project required the team to integrate diverse data, including climate-sensitive factors and epidemiology, which are key drivers of dengue transmission in tropical regions like Indonesia. Diyah also noted that the challenge lay in merging complex epidemiological data with advanced AI models, which pushed the team to think creatively and develop innovative solutions.
For Diyah and team, it was a learning experience that broadened their understanding of public health and AI integration. “Throughout this journey, we gained valuable insights in understanding epidemiology problems in infectious diseases and implementing neurosymbolic AI models as a new AI approach to solve real-world problems,” she explained. She emphasized that while the program was well-structured, incorporating mentorship sessions could add significant value. Such sessions would not only enhance learning but also foster valuable networking opportunities among participants.
As ExplainDengue moves forward, it holds the potential to transform how governments, health organizations, and researchers predict and respond to dengue outbreaks. By blending AI expertise with public health knowledge, this project represents how technology can be a powerful tool in addressing some of the most pressing health challenges in the Global South.
So, could AI be the future of public health? ExplainDengue is certainly making a strong case for it.
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