Digital Epidemiology Lab

Professor Marcel Salathé’s group, the Digital Epidemiology Lab, uses the new and rapidly growing digital data streams coming from the web and mobile devices in order to advance public and personalized health. These big data sets are then used by artificial intelligence algorithms to improve our understanding of the health and disease dynamics both in individuals, as well as in the population at large.

In a world where billions of people generate and collect more and more health-relevant data online and on mobile devices, the opportunities for more precise and efficient health services are enormous. From tracking personalized nutrition on mobile phones through automated image recognition, to measuring health trends emerging on social media platforms with natural language processing, the lab combines its life science expertise with its applied machine learning experience to shape the health care systems of the future. Based in both the life science and computer science schools at EPFL, Prof. Salathé and his group represent the interdisciplinary nature of modern research.

Professor Salathé is also the founder and academic director of the EPFL Extension School, which is located at the Campus Biotech Innovation Park. The EPFL Extension School is providing online training for everyone to build and advance their applied digital skills, in areas such as data science, web development, and cybersecurity. Its mission is to enable everyone to learn the skills necessary to benefit from the opportunities of the digital age.