Three students deliver first projects for the ‘Global Flu View Spark’ program

The Global Flu View Spark (GFV Spark) program funds students to work on projects that expand or enhance the impact of the Global Flu View (GFV) digital disease tracking platform. Three students in the first cohort of the GFV Spark program worked on promising projects to enhance and expand GFV during the summer of 2024.

Lady Dorothy Elli, an MPH student with a concentration in Global Health, worked in the Philippines to promote the adoption of a participatory influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance system that could enhance early detection using Global Flu View.

Oluchi Kanma-Okafor, a doctoral student in Health Behavior Health Promotion, worked in Nigeria to expand the use of participatory surveillance to report and track influenza.

Joy Kinko Luzingu, a doctoral student in Epidemiology, conducted a qualitative study on the utility of Global Flu View by interviewing GFV partner representatives, advisory group members, and public health researchers who use the platform.

Designed to drive innovation and research in public health, the Global Flu View (GFV) Spark program invites ambitious students to contribute to the expansion and impact of the Global Flu View platform. GFV Spark offers project funding opportunities to three students per cohort, supporting initiatives aimed at enhancing GFV’s effectiveness and reach. This is a unique chance to influence public health outcomes on both local and global scales. Through the GFV Spark program, students gain hands-on experience with data analysis and digital epidemiology platform management.

The Global Flu View platform was developed by Dr. Onicio Leal and the team at the nonprofit Ending Pandemics. In 2023, the GFV platform was awarded to the University of Arizona to become a program at the Global Health Institute in the Zuckerman College of Public Health. GFV continues to serve its purpose as a participatory disease surveillance platform globally, and at the same time provides a unique public health education and research opportunity within the college. Ending Pandemics will become part of the Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona in 2025.

New opportunity: call for student applications to GFV Spark

Applications are now open for the second cohort of student projects for the Global Flu View Spark program! You can see all the information to learn more and apply on the Global Health Institute website.

Student GFV Spark Projects

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Lady Dorothy Elli
MPH student, concentration in Global Health

For her GFV Spark project, Lady Elli worked to establish a participatory influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance system in the Philippines. She worked with the Epidemiology Bureau in the national Department of Health to discuss implementation of a system that would enable Filipinos to self-report ILI symptoms in order to enhance real-time health data collection and early detection through the Global Flu View Flu Pulse platform. Lady is now working to collaborate with the Department of Health Communications Office to assist in promoting the ILI surveillance system to prepare for a full rollout. View Lady's Poster

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Oluchi Kanma-Okafor
PhD student, Health Behavior Health Promotion

Oluchi Kanma-Okafor worked in collaboration with the Nigeria Center for Disease Control and Prevention, local health authorities, and community stakeholders to implement and promote the Nigerian participatory surveillance platform FluNetNg, the first of its kind in Africa. The real-time data from FluNetNg will then be integrated into the GFV platform to track Influenza-like Illness (ILI) cases. The GFV online platform will provide a robust, data-driven ecosystem so that Nigerian public health officials can monitor ILI cases, make informed decisions, and stop the spread of influenza and other communicable diseases. View Oluchi's Poster

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Joy Kinko Luzingu
PhD student, Epidemiology

Joy Luzingu’s GFV Spark research project focused on a qualitative evaluation of the utility of the Global Flu View platform. As part of his methodology, he interviewed GFV partner representatives, advisory group members, and public health researchers. These interviews explored the users perceptions of GFV as a system orchestrator and data hub, their experiences using the platform, the challenges they faced in accessing ILI data, and their thoughts on future directions for the GFV tool. View Joy's Poster

For more information about Global Flu View or the GFV Spark program contact Dr. Onicio Leal, onicio@arizona.edu.

This story was originally published at publichealth.arizona.edu/newsroom.