**3. Digital health in the response to viral outbreaks**

One of the basic epidemiological principles in mitigating infectious disease outbreaks is to stop transmission through timely detection and isolation of cases [26]. Hence, leveraging DH contributes to an effective public health strategy to prevent and mitigate the spread of an infectious disease [27].

DH is the new paradigm in health care, defined as "the convergence of four disruptive technologies: 1) the use of digital platforms, connected through micro-services, 2) cloud-based services with robust infrastructure to support big data transactions, 3) use of inter-connected wearables, devices and tracers, and 4) connecting communities through mobile phone apps and social media. These technologies are enhanced by Artificial Intelligence." [28]. The potential of DH has been demonstrated in detecting and mitigating infectious disease outbreaks and epidemics in countries worldwide [29]. Some examples of successful DH-based strategies include the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak across West Africa [27] and the 2003 global outbreak of SARS-CoV [29]. In Mexico, there is evidence of the benefits of a mobile phone-based intervention to support surveillance during the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009 [30].

The current COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for innovation in continuous surveillance, rapid diagnosis, and real-time contact-tracing of emerging infectious diseases. Health systems are structured around face-to-face medical visits, which involve direct interaction between patients and their health care providers [31]. This operating model can contribute to faster spread of infection among uninfected individuals, quickly overwhelming available critical care services [31, 32]. Additionally, health care providers are at high risk of exposure to COVID-19 infection, which leads to reduced availability of skilled clinicians over time. When health care resources are strained to a breaking point, patient care may be compromised, which is associated with negative outcomes and increased mortality rates [33].

Given the aforementioned scenario, there is a window of opportunity to implement, expand, and integrate DH technologies across the health care system [34]. The use of digital platforms has become the primary means of communication whereby people, governments, organizations, and health institutions can communicate, work, interact, share and exchange knowledge and information, and generate data [35].

DH has become increasingly instrumental in the response of governments and organizations to COVID-19 [36]. DH solutions include, but are not limited to, telemedicine/telehealth, electronic medical records, public health surveillance leveraging on big data and AI algorithms, wireless health sensors, georreferencebased tracing technologies, mobile health applications (apps), and health analytics platforms for public health and clinical decision-making [33]. In the case of



*The MONITOR Ecosystem: A Digital Health Intervention for the Early Detection, Control… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95260*


#### **Table 1.**

*Digital solutions developed to prevent and manage COVID-19 around the world.*

COVID-19, DH can offer real-time access to comprehensive individualized reliable data, to enable personalized monitoring and provide AI-based assistance. DH can also be implemented to access reliable data and information, participate in social media, use risk-based algorithms to support self-diagnosis, seek health professionals to receive clinical support, and maintain work activities, among other applications [35, 37]. **Table 1** shows some DH solutions that have been developed and are being used by institutions, governments, and NGOs around the world to prevent, manage, and mitigate COVID-19.
