Building issue-data maps to support the resolution of socio-national issues: Focusing on the issue of increase in domestic inflow of foreign infectious diseases

Owing to the development of big-data-related technology, interest on systematic methodology that determines policies has been increasing based on data in the public health field. In this study, a method is proposed to establish an issue data map required to discover main national and social issues based on the data and solve issues through cooperation with domain experts. First, main issues with socially high interest are selected through literature review and analysis on news and search trends. Next, the factors that influence these selected issues are analyzed, and specific monitoring items of each driving force are selected to investigate the related data. In addition, a map is established to interconnect researchers with considerable experience in issue domain research and policy decision organizations that have decision-making capacity to solve the issues. This study empirically shows the process of establishing an issue map on a main social issue, which is the “increase in domestic inflow of foreign infectious diseases.” Efficient policy decision making will be possible if an issue-detection system that enables constant monitoring based on this issue map is established.