ArticleCanada communicable disease report = Releve des maladies transmissibles au Canada2021
FluWatchers: Evaluation of a crowdsourced influenza-like illness surveillance application for Canadian influenza seasons 2015-2016 to 2018-2019.
Article in Canada communicable disease report = Releve des maladies transmissibles au Canada, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- What are the characteristics of participatory surveillance systems for influenza-like-illness?Journal of global health · 2023Pooled it
- Health Care Providers' Perspectives on Early Warning Systems for Acute Respiratory Infections in Canada: Qualitative Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2026Article
- Early Warning Systems for Acute Respiratory Infections: Scoping Review of Global Evidence.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
- Collective Intelligence-Based Participatory COVID-19 Surveillance in Accra, Ghana: Pilot Mixed Methods Study.JMIR infodemiology · 2024Article
- Innovations in public health surveillance: An overview of novel use of data and analytic methods.Canada communicable disease report = Releve des maladies transmissibles au Canada · 2024Article
- Syndromic surveillance performance in Canada throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, March 1, 2020 to March 4, 2023.Canada communicable disease report = Releve des maladies transmissibles au Canada · 2023Article
- Enabling Multicentric Participatory Disease Surveillance for Global Health Enhancement: Viewpoint on Global Flu View.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2023Article
- Representativeness of the FluWatchers Participatory Disease Surveillance Program 2015-2016 to 2018-2019: How do participants compare with the Canadian population?Canada communicable disease report = Releve des maladies transmissibles au Canada · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSentinel influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance is an essential component of a comprehensive influenza surveillance program. Community-based ILI surveillance systems that rely solely on sentinel healthcare practices omit important segments of the population, including those who do not seek medical care. Participatory surveillance, which relies on community participation in surveillance, may address some limitations of traditional ILI systems.
objectiveWe aimed to evaluate FluWatchers, a crowdsourced ILI application developed to complement and complete ILI surveillance in Canada.
methodsUsing established frameworks for surveillance evaluations, we assessed the acceptability, reliability, accuracy and usefulness of the FluWatchers system 2015-2016, through 2018-2019. Evaluation indicators were compared against national surveillance indicators of ILI and of laboratory confirmed respiratory virus infections.
resultsThe acceptability of FluWatchers was demonstrated by growth of 50%-100% in season-over-season participation, and a consistent season-over-season retention of 80%. Reliability was greater for FluWatchers than for our traditional ILI system, although both systems had week-over-week fluctuations in the number of participants responding. FluWatchers' ILI rates had moderate correlation with weekly influenza laboratory detection rates and other winter seasonal respiratory virus detections including respiratory syncytial virus and seasonal coronaviruses. Finally, FluWatchers has demonstrated its usefulness as a source of core FluWatch surveillance information and has the potential to fill data gaps in current programs for influenza surveillance and control.
conclusionFluWatchers is an example of an innovative digital participatory surveillance program that was created to address limitations of traditional ILI surveillance in Canada. It fulfills the surveillance system evaluation criteria of acceptability, reliability, accuracy and usefulness.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.