IBM"s software can quickly create an epidemiological model for how an infectious disease, such as bird flu, is likely to geographically spread over time based on certain parameters including population, road maps, airport locations, travel patterns and bird migratory routes around the world. Public health agencies and software developers in local communities can customize the models.
IBM is contributing a processing engine to the open source and public health communities that will make it easier to track the transmission of diseases around the world.
The software, Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler (STEM), is available for use through the Eclipse Open Healthcare Framework Project, which is hosted at the Eclipse Foundation.
STEM, which represents nearly three years of global research including contributions from scientists from IBM"s Almaden, Haifa and Watson labs, can quickly create an epidemiological model for how an infectious disease, such as bird flu, is likely to geographically spread over time based on certain parameters such as population, roadmaps, airport locations, travel patterns and bird migratory routes around the world.