The story of the Broad Street pump
As most epidemiologists know, the story of the Broad Street pump is a lesson on how observations of interactions among people, places and times can be used to create a more comprehensive picture of disease.
At the height of London’s cholera outbreak in 1854, local physician John Snow was determined to find out why some people were getting very sick and dying, while others in the same tight-knit community were not.
Health professionals of the day attributed the cholera illness to miasmas or foul odours in a growing city struggling with waste management issues. But, Snow didn’t agree with that theory. There were plenty of people exposed to the odours who were healthy.
Snow visited homes, door-to-door, interviewed the sick and the healthy, and created a map showing where they lived (and died) – and the patterns of their daily routines.
His map revealed that families who received their water supply from the Broad Street pump were sickened with cholera. Those who received their water from different pumps, even if they lived next door, were not sick.
Without the tools to see the microscopic bacteria in the water from the Broad Street pump, Snow used his map of visual data collection to convince the town to shut down the Broad Street pump. In doing so, he saved countless lives.
Snow’s influence on infectious disease management can still be seen today
In fact, the contact tracing work during the COVID-19 pandemic draws its scientific roots from Snow’s “shoe leather” research in identifying sick households.
Because of his approach in assessing disease through individual patterns and environmental factors, John Snow is regarded as the father of epidemiology, and one of the first information designers in healthcare.
At Broadstreet HEOR
We embrace the ethos of John Snow’s revolutionary strategy, and are meticulous in our approach to capture, analyze and interpret data and evidence to create visual storytelling.