As another flu season approaches, health tech will play an educational role

From 1976 to 2006, between 3,000 and 49,000 people died every year due to complications from the flu. No single effort to combat the flu has been as impactful as the development of flu vaccines, first developed shortly after the virus was first isolated in 1933. But in recent years, various tech approaches are aiming to fill the information gap, boosting efforts to better inform the public about the virus and its spread, as well as where to get immunized and how to get help if you’re sick. From personal apps to big data mining and real-time interactive maps of outbreaks, the effort to revolutionize the public’s understanding of influenza has been extremely tech-driven.