Photos: From Big Bang physics to F1 racing - how analytics is shaping the world's decisions

Today analytics has broken free of the corporation and is shaping everything from nuclear physics to Formula One racing.

Here silicon.com takes a look at some of the more unusual organisations where analytics is making a difference.

World Health Organisation

The World Health Organisation (WHO) helps countries predict and prepare for disease outbreaks by gathering and analysing information on conditions affecting health across the globe.

WHO staff work with officials around the world to collect information relevant to infectious outbreaks, including where and when disease occurs and data on a country's level of healthcare provision, wealth, urbanisation, terrain, climate and other details.

"We try to measure what are the different factors that will influence the health of a population, whether it is their environment or their income level," said Dr Najeeb Al-Shorbaji, the WHO's director of knowledge management and sharing.

"All of these help us to understand better the health situation and in which direction a country is going."

The data gathered by the WHO is fed into around 100 different databases which hold information on different types of diseases and the conditions associated with them.

The databases are then used to compile a central database of global trends in disease outbreaks, mortality rates and standards of healthcare called Whosis (WHO Statistical Information System), which is published annually.

Using a geographical information system (GIS), the WHO can also overlay public health data from Whosis and other sources on maps, to find links between potential health problems and the conditions on the ground, such as temperature, soil elevation or patterns of land use.

As a result, the GIS means the WHO can detect areas at risk of a disease outbreak and advise countries on what preventative measures need to be taken.

"Our intelligence might inform a country that they will need to prepare a vaccine or spraying of chemicals to reduce numbers of mosquitoes," said Dr Al-Shorbaji.

"Making this information available in a timely fashion is one of our major tasks."

Photo credit: kat m research via Flickr under the following Creative Commons licence