The Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston recently unveiled HealthMap, a Google Maps mashup that aggregates news about disease outbreaks from around the world, allowing users to track potential epidemics. There are still relatively few stories on the map, but its creators hope that it may one day allow the public to notice disease trends that are often hinted at in the media before researchers are able to connect the dots. For instance, early signs of the 2002 SARS outbreak were reported in Chinese newspapers well before the extent of the outbreak became clear.

There's a lot of room for improvement on this one, but it could soon be a game-changer for global public health.

(Hat tip: The Private Sector Development Blog)