IBM , Public Health Groups Form Global Pandemic Initiative

IBM , Public Health Groups Form Global Pandemic Initiative

IBM and over twenty major worldwide public health institutions, including the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, today announced the Global Pandemic Initiative, a collaborative effort to help stem the spread of infectious diseases.

With growing concerns over potential outbreaks of new strains of disease, and their ability to spread more easily because of modern transportation, IBM scientists have formed a steering committee with worldwide health organizations and universities to guide efforts to address the issue. Together, they will explore the use of advanced analytical and computer technology as part of a global preparedness program for responding to potential infectious disease outbreaks around the world.

IBM will bring to bear several of its key technologies and is establishing healthcare “Innovation Centers” at the company’s worldwide Research laboratories to work with the global healthcare community in this collaborative effort. “The threat of a pandemic is a definitively global phenomenon,” said Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Our response must be similarly global, and must rely — as with so many other major issues we face today — on open, collaborative innovation. IBM is proud to join with our partners in this effort, grounded in our core value of ‘innovation that matters.’”

Read the complete Press Release