Feature request: Global Health Monitoring Dashboard (WHO / ECDC / PubMed feeds)

[Docriadhchaker]

Feature area

Map / Globe / Data layers

Description

Feature proposal: Global Health Monitoring Dashboard

I would like to propose a feature idea for World Monitor.

The idea is to create a Health Monitoring Dashboard that aggregates real-time signals from global public health sources.

Potential data sources

• WHO news and surveillance feeds
• ECDC epidemiological updates
• PubMed scientific publications
• medRxiv preprints
• FDA pharmacovigilance / safety communications

Core idea

Display health-related events on a global map similar to World Monitor, with:

• clustering of events
• filtering by time window (24h / 7d / 30d)
• grouping by source or region
• links to original sources

Use cases

• epidemiological monitoring
• global outbreak awareness
• public health surveillance
• research monitoring

Possible architecture

• RSS ingestion (WHO / ECDC)
• API ingestion (PubMed)
• simple geocoding for regional fallback
• map visualization using MapLibre or similar

I have experimented with a prototype implementation locally and would be happy to share ideas or contribute.

Thanks!

Problem it solves

Global public health information is scattered across multiple sources (WHO, ECDC, PubMed, regulatory agencies). Monitoring emerging health signals requires manually checking many different platforms.

A health monitoring dashboard would aggregate these sources and display recent health events on a global map, making surveillance faster and easier for researchers, clinicians, and public health professionals.

Alternatives considered

Existing alternatives include WHO/ECDC websites, PubMed, and general news aggregators. However, these sources require manually checking multiple platforms and do not provide a unified interface for monitoring global health signals.

A map-based dashboard that aggregates multiple trusted public health sources would make it easier to track emerging events and updates in one place.

Additional context

I experimented with a small prototype of a health monitoring dashboard that aggregates WHO and ECDC RSS feeds and displays the events on a global map.

The prototype includes:

• RSS ingestion (WHO / ECDC)
• event clustering on a world map
• time filtering (24h / 7d / 30d)
• event list grouped by publication date
• links to original sources

The goal was to explore how a map-based interface could help visualize global health signals more intuitively.

Example inspiration:

• HealthMap (https://healthmap.org)
• ProMED-mail monitoring tools
• WHO outbreak news feeds

I can share screenshots or a small demo repository if helpful.

[koala73]

One of my doctor friends have been pushing for something similar, will see if any one from the community picks it up or I schedule for some weekend night work 😉

[Docriadhchaker]

That’s great to hear 🙂

I’m actually a physician myself, with beginner-level development skills. I built a small prototype exploring this idea (RSS ingestion + map-based visualization of health signals) mainly to understand the problem better.

If you ever decide to experiment with this feature during a weekend session, I’d be happy to help shape the specs from the medical/public health perspective.

Thanks again for considering the idea!

[koala73]

That's great to hear, if you spec it out a bit more, I promise to work on it. Deal ?

[koala73]

FYI, I currently capture WHO data already:

• RSS feeds: who.int/rss-feeds/news-english.xml in feeds.ts:650
• Security Advisories panel: WHO News + WHO Africa Emergencies RSS feeds (security-advisories.ts:96-97)
• Threat classifier: 'health emergency' category (threat-classifier.ts:105)
• Humanity counters: WHO/UNICEF immunization stats (humanity-counters.ts:49-50)
• Source tier: WHO is tier 1 gov source (feeds.ts:115, 339)
• Crisis category: WHO grouped with CrisisWatch, IAEA, UNHCR (feeds.ts:1279)

and show in :

1. Security Advisories Panel (src/services/security-advisories.ts:96-97): WHO News + WHO Africa Emergencies RSS feeds
   show up as security advisory items.
2. News Panel (src/config/feeds.ts:650): WHO RSS feed is in the crisis category (feeds.ts:1279), so WHO articles appear
   in the news feed alongside CrisisWatch, IAEA, and UNHCR.
3. Humanity Counters (src/services/humanity-counters.ts:49-50): WHO/UNICEF immunization stats power the live counter
   widget.

[Docriadhchaker]

Thanks for the encouragement — I tried to think about this from the perspective of how the other Monitor variants are structured (World, Tech, Finance, Commodity).

Instead of aggregating too many sources at once, the idea would be to define a clear health monitoring scope with a small set of focused panels. Something along these lines:

Suggested Health Monitor panels

• Global Health Situation – high-level global signals and major health developments
• Live Health Alerts – urgent public health advisories and emerging risks
• Outbreak Surveillance – monitoring pathogens (viruses, bacteria, etc.) and epidemiological signals
• Drug Safety – pharmacovigilance, safety warnings, withdrawals, label changes
• Therapeutic Innovation – major developments in treatments, especially chronic diseases and oncology
• Health Systems Under Stress – disruption of health systems due to conflicts, disasters, famine, climate events, etc.
• Vaccination & Immunization – vaccine campaigns, coverage, policy updates
• Health Indicators – system-level indicators and performance metrics
• Health Tech & AI – digital health, medical AI, connected devices, and policy/strategy developments
• Medical Events – major conferences, global health forums, and industry gatherings

Reference ecosystems / inspiration

These would mainly guide the type of data rather than be directly ingested at first:

• WHO Data Dashboards / Global Health Observatory / SCORE → health indicators and system performance
• CDC NSSP dashboards → inspiration for surveillance-style monitoring
• DHIS2 Health Data Toolkit → public health information systems and routine health data
• DrugBank / Biomedtracker → therapeutic and drug intelligence context
• Global Digital Health Monitor → digital health strategy and AI adoption

The goal wouldn’t be to replicate these platforms, but to surface signals and updates relevant to global health monitoring, similar to how the other Monitor variants surface signals for geopolitics, tech, finance, or commodities.

Happy to refine this further if helpful.

[Docriadhchaker]

Just to add a bit of context about where my original idea came from.

My initial motivation was actually related to continuous professional development for clinicians. As a physician, I often feel that keeping up with new scientific developments is fragmented and time-consuming.

The prototype I built was originally meant as a way to surface recent scientific and medical innovations (research, therapeutic advances, policy updates, health tech developments) in a structured and visual way.

The idea was not to build a heavy product, but rather something data-driven and exploratory:
a place where clinicians could follow developments in their field simply by monitoring signals and updates — essentially learning by observing the evolving landscape.

In that sense, a Health Monitor variant could also indirectly support continuous medical learning, where professionals explore signals, read summarized updates, and stay aware of innovations across the global health ecosystem.

But the core idea remains simple and aligned with your existing monitors:
surfacing relevant health signals and updates, not building a full education platform.

[NewCoder3294]

I really like this idea

[koala73]

@Docriadhchaker It's shaping well, thank you! - I will get 1 or more doctors of mine - non techies whatsoever see if they can push the idea even further before developing it

[NewCoder3294]

@koala73 What happened with the Happy dashboard? Including the three we have now + the happy dashboard + medical dashboard, maybe we should have a dropdown menu to change between each one, so the header does not get too crowded.

[jrtorrez31337]

Great spec work @Docriadhchaker. Breaking down the 10 proposed panels, I think this naturally splits into two phases based on where they fit architecturally:

Phase A — World Monitor additions (panels + map layers within the existing monitor)

These fit patterns we already have:

• 1. Global Health Situation — summarization panel, similar to how Security Advisories works today
• 2. Live Health Alerts — panel + clickable map markers on the 2D/3D globe (like military flights or vessel markers)
• 3. Outbreak Surveillance — region-level overlay (choropleth/heatmap on countries) with click-through to a detail panel, plus a list view
• 6. Health Systems Under Stress — panel view, potentially with map visualization. Could correlate with existing disaster/conflict data

Phase B — Health Monitor variant (new monitor, like Tech/Finance/Commodity)

These are medical-domain-specific and don't map cleanly onto the world geopolitical view:

• 4. Drug Safety
• 5. Therapeutic Innovation
• 7. Vaccination & Immunization
• 9. Health Tech & AI
• 10. Medical Events

Panel 8 (Health Indicators) could go either way — as a country-level data overlay in World Monitor or as a standalone indicators dashboard in the Health variant. Depends on what metrics end up in scope.

Phase B ties into what @NewCoder3294 raised about the header getting crowded — the monitor-switching UX would need to be sorted before adding another variant.

The big ask: I'd defer entirely to the doctors on which data sources are authoritative and trustworthy for each panel. We can handle the engineering — seeders, Redis pipelines, map layers, panel UI — but deciding whether a given WHO feed, PubMed index, or ECDC endpoint is the right signal for clinical monitoring isn't a call engineers should be making. @Docriadhchaker if you and @koala73's doctor friends could prioritize which sources matter most for Phase A panels, that would unblock the implementation side.

[koala73]

Good stuff from @jrtorrez31337 , yes, this should be driven by doctors - till implementation time, at least. I am trying to get a few of my doctor friends engaged around this. Will ping again

[jrtorrez31337]

implementation

the good doctor mentioned some data sources already doing some discovery work will share my finding when available

[Docriadhchaker]

That makes sense.

On our side, we are currently discussing the Phase A panels with a few clinicians to make sure the signal layer reflects real-world needs (what is actually useful in practice vs. just available data).

The goal is not to overcomplicate things, but to come back with:

• a small set of high-trust sources
• clear priorities per panel
• something directly usable within the current World Monitor architecture

We’ll share a more concrete proposal here once this is a bit more structured so it can stay open for feedback and iteration.