XDR/TB Scenario - Transparent Accountable Data Mining Initiative

Posted by K Krasnow Waterman on Wed, May 30, 2007 @ 23:05 PM
Truth is stranger than fiction.  For several months, the TAMI team has been building a hypothetical scenario involving a patient with Extra Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR/TB) and a need for the CDC to use data mining to find the people to whom he might have spread the disease.  Just a few weeks ago, we expanded the hypothetical scenario to include a branch in which the patient was the subject of a court hearing over whether he had to be involuntarily confined to a hospital (quarantined).  Then, today, the news was filled with the real-world case of a man with XDR/TB who traveled  half-way round the world on commercial flights, his quarantine by the US government, and the CDC investigation  seeking to use airline data records to identify potential contacts. 

Topics: technology for business managers