Speaker

Talk: Harnessing the potential of AI for epidemic early warning - EPIWATCH

Raina MacIntyre (MBBS Hons 1, M App Epid, PhD, FRACP, FAFPHM) is Professor of Global Biosecurity, NHMRC Principal Research Fellow and Head of the Biosecurity Program at the Kirby Institute, UNSW, Australia. She leads a research program in control and prevention of epidemics, pandemics, bioterrorism and emerging infections. She is a graduate of Australia’s field epidemiology training program and has extensive field experience of outbreak investigation and control. She has led a large body of clinical trial, modelling and experimental research on face masks and respirators for prevention of respiratory transmissible infections. She has developed EPIWATCH, an AI-driven epidemic observatory that harnesses open-source data, searches in over 40 languages, uses algorithms to sort and prioritize data, and has proven capability in early detection of serious outbreaks. She advocates for the adoption of digital public health for epidemic detection and prevention as a means of early warning and overcoming weak surveillance systems or censorship of epidemic reporting. She has over 400 peer reviewed publications. She has received many awards including the Sir Henry Wellcome Medal and Prize from the Association of Military Surgeons of the US. She is on the editorial boards of Vaccine, BMJ Open and Epidemiology & Infection. In 2021 she was on a US National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine pandemic consensus committee, and is currently a member of the WHO COVID-19 Vaccine Composition Technical Advisory group.

Full biography.