The Chicago Department of Public Health has developed a unique program using Twitter to track Chicagoans complaining about food poisoning from local restaurants in order to launch surprise health inspections on city restaurants.
Starting last year, the Chicago Health Department contracted with a developer to create a Twitter app that tracked people saying they were suffering from food poisoning in Chicago. After being alerted, the agency would then tweet follow-up questions to the sufferers and ask them to fill out a Health Department complaint form.
The program, named Foodbourne Chicago, is dedicated, the city says, to “improving lives in Chicago through technology.”