Surveillance roadblocks and future directions

Data volume and quality

"Big data hubris” reminds us that even the most accurate AI-trained infectious-disease surveillance systems can lead to over-fitting (i.e., predictions that are not generalizable because they are too tailored to specific data) and should complement rather than replace high-quality traditional surveillance.


Disease-tracking systems that are not supplemented by molecular testing may not be able to disentangle co-circulating infections that have similar clinical manifestations.


AI algorithms designed for surveillance of diseases such as Covid-19 will require frequent recalibration as new pathogen variants emerge and exogenous variables.


machine-learning algorithms trained on low-quality data will not add value, and in some circumstances they may even be harmful.