On July 21, 2021, Clinical Prof. Niwes Nanthachit, President of Chiang Mai University, offered his congratulations to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lertrak Srikitjakarn, DVM, Director of the Participatory One-health Disease Detection (PODD) Centre, for winning the Grand Prize at the University of Cambridge’s Trinity Challenge in identifying zoonotic outbreaks before they spread to humans and cause major outbreaks across continents. The congratulatory meeting took place at the Tawan Kongkangwanphong Meeting Room at the Strategy Building, Office of Chiang Mai University.
The PODD Centre has developed a one-health disease detection system for humans, animals, the environment, and disasters that enables locals to report anomalies in the community via mobile application that receives reports, processes data and informs the public in real-time. It also notifies the responsible local administrative organisation and other related agencies, so a swift response can be made. The app helps foster the ability to utilise digital technology and strengthen the community at its core, and it will enhance the effectiveness of prevention of human and animal outbreaks, as well as environmental disasters, which will directly benefit the public sector’s operation, environmental well-being, the livestock industry, and environmental disaster response. The key principle lies in cooperation between the community and the local administrative organisation. Since 2014, the PODD system has undergone continuous improvements to meet the community needs, and at present, there are more than 14 features addressing different community problems, including sick animals, deaths, bites, dengue fever, environmental problems and disasters, zoonotic outbreaks, human outbreaks, hotspot location and open burning, consumer protection, food safety, and COVID-19 surveillance, among others. The PODD Centre is ready to provide technological and innovative support, as well as academic knowledge on One Health, to assist the local administrative organisation’s mission in the area with the emphasis on the co-ownership of the community and the local administrative organisation to improve the quality of life for Chiang Mai residents and its liveability.
The PODD project is a collaboration between Chiang Mai University and Open Dream to develop an application capable of disease/disaster surveillance and management that the community can use and co-own. It is an integrated effort from public, private, and community organisations in the form of a mobile application that efficiently monitors outbreaks and disasters for the community. The project’s implementation has had tremendous benefits at the community and societal scales, resulting in numerous awards at the ASEAN and international levels. The latest addition to the project’s long list of achievements is the Grand Prize Winner’s title of the 2021 edition of the Trinity Challenge by Trinity College, University of Cambridge, from which the project received 1.3 million pounds of funding (approximately 57.4 million baht) for project development.
In the future, the goal is to extend the project’s results in outbreak prevention to the national, ASEAN, and Indian Subcontinent scales. CMU takes great pride in having played a role in producing great projects like this that will create a positive impact on the world.
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