Sumiko Mekaru

Sumiko Mekaru, PhD, DVM, MLS, MPVM is an Instructor in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Her work focuses on digital epidemiology, infectious disease surveillance, and One Health approaches. She holds appointments at Tufts since September 2021, teaching courses like 'Research Skills II - Surveill' from 2021 to 2023. Mekaru's expertise spans public health informatics, outbreak prediction, and leveraging non-traditional data sources for disease monitoring.

Her research integrates social media, internet-based news, and geospatial data to enhance global outbreak detection and response. Notable contributions include work on the HealthMap system, vaccine compliance studies, and forecasting rare disease outbreaks. She has published extensively on topics such as pandemic preparedness, zoonotic disease transmission, and digital tools for public health surveillance.

Mekaru’s academic background combines veterinary medicine, public health, and library science, enabling multidisciplinary approaches to global health challenges. She has collaborated on initiatives like the MedWatcher system and participatory epidemiology projects in low-resource settings.