How Google Earth AI’s planetary intelligence is supporting global public health

Improving the precision of public health interventions

In Malawi, Google.org grantee Cooper/Smith combined Earth AI’s PDFM and AlphaEarth satellite embeddings with local data to predict health service utilization at local clinics. This can help decision-makers spot early warning signs of disease outbreaks and allocate limited resources more efficiently.

To combat the rise of measles, researchers at Mount Sinai and Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard, used Earth AI’s PDFM to fill gaps and produce “superresolution” estimates of vaccination coverage. Based on privacy-preserving, aggregated data, researchers can map vaccination rates down to the ZIP-code level without revealing sensitive personal information, and identify localized clusters of undervaccination that align with recent outbreaks.

Forecasting for diseases where weather and geography matter

Weather influences the pace of many diseases, and specific weather patterns can signal health crises. For example, summer rains can…