Mobile phones generate a staggering amount of data, allowing researchers to address previously unanswerable questions, and answer existing questions with new depth and granularity. How are researchers making use of mobile data to.
Data-driven global health research in the time of COVID
Image: Dominic Chavez/World Bank
On March 31st and April 1st, the World Bank’s Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) Department and Tools and Analytics Unit hosted
MeasureDev 2021), in partnership with the Center for Effective Global Action. The conference showcased how researchers are using new types of data and data-intensive approaches to address critical public health challenges, especially in low- and middle-income countries. It highlighted ways that new analytical methods (such as applications of artificial intelligence), and growing troves of new data (produced by social media platforms, internet searches, sensors, and cell phones) are allowing researchers to track, measure, and respond to health interventions and phenomena in real-time, and at lower cost than traditional person-to-person survey methods. This is particularly helpful in a crisis situation like the COVID-19 pandemic, where traditional data collection