Digital methods in epidemiology can transform disease control

Modern society has been transformed by the digital revolution through cellular phones for communication, remote sensing of weather and other terrestrial data, cheap and plentiful digital computation and data storage, genomic sequencing and analysis, GPS for geolocation and navigation, and many other marvels. These advances have been concurrent with major changes in the burden, dynamics and distributions of diseases. The burden of disease remains intolerably high in much of the world,1 and current challenges facing epidemiology include reducing the prevalence of both communicable and non-communicable dis-eases,1 completing the Global Polio Eradication Initiative,2 devel-oping strategies to control and eliminate malaria,2,3 and responding to outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases such as the recent Ebola epidemic.4 In this special issue of International Health, the authors illustrate both the ways in which moder