Finding the needle in the haystack: concepts, new approaches and vision of early threat detection of public health threats

ABSTRACT
Detecting early signals of public health threats requires finding meaningful information within vast and noisy data streams. This seminar introduces the core concepts of epidemic intelligence and early threat detection, explores how artificial intelligence and other digital technologies can enhance existing processes and tools, and discusses a forward‑looking vision for more timely, scalable and resilient threat detection systems.

SHORT BIO
Laura Espinosa is an Epidemic Intelligence Expert at ECDC and a recently graduated PhD candidate from the EPFL Digital Epidemiology Lab in Switzerland. She is a public health veterinarian with a specialisation in digital technologies and has contributed to ECDC activities related to major public health events of international concern over the past decade. Her work focuses on artificial intelligence, social media, and the digitalisation of early threat detection in public health.