Andrés Colubri, MFA, PhD, an assistant professor of genomics and computational biology at UMass Chan Medical School, has partnered with a team from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to create a mobile app designed to support infectious disease research and promote health for international travelers.
Dr. Colubri, along with his multidisciplinary team of computational scientists, software engineers, and visual designers, developed the Travel Healthy App as part of the Global Travelers’ Epidemiology Network. This network, a nationwide collaboration of travel clinics, is supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and coordinated by MGH. The project is co-directed by Regina LaRocque, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Edward Ryan, MD, director of global infectious diseases at MGH.
“We built this project from the ground up, creating the technology ourselves,” said Colubri, who specializes in using machine learning, digital epidemiology, genomics, data visualization, and mobile technology to advance infectious disease research. “Mobile devices provide unique opportunities to gather health data that would be difficult to obtain otherwise.”
Previously, MGH only gathered health data from travelers before and after their trips. The actual time spent traveling remained largely unmonitored, presenting a gap in the data.
“The travel period was essentially a black box,” Colubri explained.
The Travel Healthy app addresses this gap by offering a daily symptom survey that begins the day before departure and concludes three days after a traveler returns. The app also sends medication reminders, such as for antimalarial drugs, and shares CDC health notices based on the phone’s location. All data is encrypted and remains private unless the user consents to participate in a paid research study via the project’s website. For those who opt in, the data is stored in a database compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Otherwise, the app is free to download on both the App Store and Google Play.
“With a large enough user base, we hope to identify statistically significant trends related to endemic pathogens worldwide and even detect emerging outbreaks,” Colubri said.
A research paper is underway to explore further applications of the app. Plans are also in motion to enable the collection of biological samples that would allow researchers to determine whether travelers are acquiring antibiotic-resistant microbes, and if so, identify the specific strains. This effort involves collaboration with Vanni Bucci, PhD, an associate professor of microbiology, and Beth McCormick, PhD, chair and professor of microbiology and director of the Center for Microbiome Research at UMass Chan.
The Travel Healthy project was recently recognized on an international stage. Colubri, along with designer Yinan Dong, MFA, from his lab, were nominated for the prestigious UX Design Awards, with winners to be announced on September 3.
Originally from Argentina, Colubri earned his PhD in mathematics from the Universidad Nacional del Sur and an MFA in media arts from the University of California, Los Angeles. He joined the UMass Chan faculty in August 2020.
