So far, there have been numerous Apple iPhone Apps that are designed to make the user experience as awesome as possible and range from media, messaging, security to navigation etc. However, a new application has now been introduced for the iPhone customers that is not only informative, but it might prove to be life saving as well. The all new application known as, “Outbreaks Near Me” has been designed and developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in collaboration with a team of researchers from the Children’s Hospital in Boston and its primary function is to keep the iPhone users informed of the outbreaks of various kinds of flu, including the deadly and widespread, Swine Flu.

The application is beneficial in two folds as not only does it inform the users of outbreaks of diseases in their regions or the areas they visit, but also give them the capability of reporting an outbreak as well. The notification from the app is either delivered to the users on their iPhone or via email. The Outbreaks Near Me application got its foundation from the HealthMap.org, an initiative started in the year 2006 as an informative campaign to collect any and all sorts of information relating to infectious disease outbreaks.

The website HealthMap.org was co-founded by Clark Freifeld who is in the capacity, that of a researcher at the Children’s Hospital has praised the new iPhone application and has termed it as, “grassroots, participatory epidemiology.” The website, that holds a comprehensive database of medical information has average of 10,000 user visitation a day and during the heightened swine flu epidemic, the website witnessed an extraordinary visitation rate, with the figures reaching as high as 150,000 user visits a day.

Via Computer World.