Pandemic detection needs improvement.

• Position: Swine Flu

A new system that would warn of an impending pandemic, before the first case of disease emerges in a given population, by detecting subtle signals in human behavior is being proposed by researchers at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. 'The goal is a public information and awareness system for pandemics with the same level of credibility, timeliness, and visibility as storm-warning icons presented on television screens," explains Barrett Caldwell, associate professor of industrial engineering.

The system works by monitoring "event phases" of human behavior leading up to a pandemic, such as an increase in people purchasing flu-related medications or "foraging" on the Internet for certain types of information related to the flu. Understanding these phases might be a way to overcome a fundamental hurdle in controlling pandemics, as conventional approaches require public health officials to know when certain events leading to a pandemic begin.

"The problem with this requirement is that by the time you know an event has happened, it's often too late to do much about it," Caldwell affirms.

Caldwell and Sandra...