AI-powered BEACON platform enhances global disease surveillance

The Biothreats Emergence, Analysis and Communications Network (BEACON) leverages advanced artificial intelligence (AI), large language models (LLMs) and a network of globally based experts to rapidly collect, analyze, and disseminate information on emerging infectious diseases affecting humans, animals, and the environment. BEACON Director, Dr. Nahid Bhadelia remarks, "BEACON comes at a time when we need more global collaboration and coordination when new biological threats appear. The platform not only reports new threats but also provides background and reasons for why a threat matters and where it should fall on our ranking of concern."

BEACON is housed at Boston University's Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases and operated in partnership with the Hariri Institute for Computing and Data Sciences at Boston University and HealthMap at Boston Children's Hospital. 

The launch of BEACON represents an exciting evolution in the field of infectious disease surveillance. By integrating HealthMap's decades-long experience in real-time epidemic monitoring with BEACON's novel AI-driven architecture, we're creating a uniquely powerful, open-source tool for rapid detection and contextualization of emerging threats."

Dr. John Brownstein, Chief Innovation Officer at Boston Children's Hospital and a BEACON Co-Director

At its launch, BEACON will be the only open-source global surveillance platform of its kind, linking public health authorities, practitioners, researchers, and the general public, rapidly and transparently sharing data and context about new threats. Like early warning systems for fires and hurricanes, BEACON's job is to analyze and broadcast the rise of new threats. By providing near real time reports of sentinel cases, clusters and outbreaks, BEACON will enable early public health response, empower clinicians tracking recent travel and illnesses in their patients and inform communities of potential new threats. 

"BEACON is the first biothreats reporting system to leverage the power of generative AI to process and analyze outbreak reports," says Hariri Institute Director and a BEACON Co-Director Dr. Yannis Paschalidis. He adds, "BEACON employs our own PandemIQ Llama LLM, specifically adapted and trained to optimize performance for outbreak analysis and report generation."

BEACON has already received a total of $6 million in funding support, including contributions from the National Science Foundation, the Gates Foundation, additional private donors, and Boston University.

Beyond financial support, BEACON has also established partnerships with high level stakeholders in the public health space including the World Health Organization's Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources initiative, the World Organisation for Animal Health, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, state public health departments, and the CDC Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics.