Using computers to survive the post-antibiotic world

Software	None
Covers	AI, computer security, heathcare, sociology, psychology, e-government
Skills Required	Ideally interest in AI, healthcare, politics, complex systems
Challenge	Conceptual ???? Technical ??? Programming

Brief Description

The first bacteria are starting to appear that are resistant to all known antibiotics. As well as evolution of resistance within species of bacteria, there are also biological mechanisms for transferring genetic material between species of bacteria that could enable the propagation of disease resistance characteristics to different pathogens. We are not very far away from the time when serious and widespread diseases can't be treated with antibiotics, when diseases we've stopped worrying about are major killers once more.

The re-emergence of infectious diseases as major problems in rich western countries will force major changes in how individuals, organizations and societies handle the prevention, control and treatment of diseases. It is likely that we will need to rely much more on isolating individuals and communities to stop the spread of disease. Two things that have changed since the pre-antibiotic world of 100 years ago are that people travel far more so we have a much more interconnected world in which diseases can spread much faster, and we now have computers and the internet.

The challenge of this project is to investigate how computer software, modern communications and modern computer-driven hardware such as smartphones can be used to deliver healthcare and disease control measures, considering the interaction between what is technologically possible now and in the foreseeable future and what is socially and politically possible now and in the foreseeable future.

Variants

This project could focus on issues of medical and computer ethics, methods of disease control, or the technical and social issues involved in using computer technology to deliver heathcare to people who don't have direct physically contact with medical professionals.

Back to