Inside Science interview with Tim Ford on satellite images and disease prediction appears on U.S. News and World Report online

UNE Vice President for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies Timothy Ford, Ph.D., was interviewed for a Feb. 24, 2011 Inside Science News Service story on the use of satellite images to predict the spread of human illness. The story also appeared on U.S.News and World Report online and other media outlets. 

The power to predict disease outbreaks could be tremendously useful, Ford said. He has examined diseases whose spread might be predicted from satellite images. For malaria, public health officials could examine the amount and location of standing water where disease-carrying mosquitoes reproduce. For cholera, they could look at sea surface height and levels of the green pigment chlorophyll, because cholera bacteria spend much of their life attached to a floating animal that feeds on chlorophyll-filled plants.

Advance warning of an outbreak can be a matter of life and death. Ford's research shows that if health officials know that a cholera outbreak might be coming, they can encourage people to take simple precautions like filtering drinking water through a cloth, which can reduce mortality by 50 percent.

Ford's research on satellite imaging has been highlighted in the past in the Feb. 3, 2010 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the September 2009 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Emerging Infectious Diseases, and in the Aug. 24, 2009 Scientific American.

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The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.