In our latest episode we are joined by the Co founders of The Biothreats Emergence, Analysis and Communications Network (BEACON). BEACON is dedicated to the rapid collection, vetting, reporting, and analysis of information on emerging threats affecting humans, domestic animals, wildlife, plants and the environment globally. BEACON combines emerging infectious diseases surveillance, a global network of moderators who are subject matter experts and the power of artificial intelligence and large language models. By using this technology BEACON provides even based informal surveillance coupled with custom tailored AI to aid in risk assessment, and near real time reporting. This technology can help lead to response from healthcare systems, bio preparedness and possibly the prevention of the next pandemic. Dr. Nahid Bhadelia is the founding director of the Boston University Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases and a board-certified infectious diseases physician. She is an Associate Professor at the BU School of Medicine and a national expert in global health security, pandemic preparedness, and emerging infectious threats. From 2022 to 2023, Dr. Bhadelia served as Senior Policy Advisor for Global COVID-19 Response at the White House, where she led U.S. interagency efforts on global vaccine donations and helped direct Project NextGen, a $5 billion initiative to develop next-generation vaccines and treatments for pandemic-prone viruses. Dr. Bhadelia has extensive frontline and research experience responding to outbreaks including Ebola, COVID-19, Zika, and other high-consequence pathogens, She previously led the Special Pathogens Unit at Boston Medical Center, a state-designated Ebola Treatment Center. She currently serves on national and international advisory bodies including the National Academies and the World Health Organization, teaches global health security at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, and has published in Nature, Science, and The New England Journal of Medicine. Her expertise has been featured by NBC and MSNBC, The Atlantic, Time, National Geographic, and NOVA. Dr. Britta Lassmann, MD is an infectious diseases physician, health technology innovator, and expert in disease surveillance, analytics, and digital public health applications. She serves as a Research Associate Professor at Boston University School of Medicine and is Co-Director and Co-Founder of the Biothreats Emergence, Analysis, and Communications Network (BEACON), an open-source global surveillance platform that integrates advanced analytics and technology to detect emerging infectious disease threats in near-real time. Dr. Lassmann trained at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and her fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Yale University. She went on to serve on the faculty at UCLA’s Division of Infectious Diseases and was Program Director at the International Society for Infectious Diseases. She is American Board-certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. She is also co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Global Second Opinion, a platform that combines artificial intelligence with expert clinical input to deliver rapid, specialized medical consultations online. Her work bridges clinical care, epidemiology, modeling, analytics, and technology to strengthen how outbreaks are tracked, understood, and responded to globally. Dr. Lassmann has contributed to research on real-time disease surveillance, digital health tools, and infectious disease dynamics, including publications on outbreak risk mapping and data needs for surveillance systems.
