IBM will donate the Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler software it developed to the open source code community, in order to help scientists and health authorities
The People system, DailyMaily
Researchers and developers from the IBM research laboratory in Haifa are partners in building a system capable of anticipating the spread of diseases that cross borders between different countries and spread around the world. IBM announced that it will donate the Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler software to the open source code community, in order to assist scientists and health authorities in preparing and planning more effective ways of responding to health crises - and protecting the health of the population.
The STEM system was developed over almost three years by IBM scientists and engineers at the IBM research laboratory in Haifa and the Almeden and Watson laboratories in the USA. The technology makes it possible to quickly build epidemiological models of the spread of infectious diseases, such as bird flu - and to analyze their distribution along the timeline and in different geographical areas. The software can be run on any operating system - and with its help create a graphic image of the spread of the disease on a basis Various parameters such as population, geography and macroeconomic data, road maps, location of airports, flight patterns and air transport routes, and the migration routes of birds around the world.
Roni Ram, leader of the technological infrastructure project for the collection and sharing of epidemiological information at the IBM laboratory in Haifa, stated that "the system allows health service managers to build models of the spread of the disease, similar to models of hurricanes. In fact, this is a 'health map': if until now it was not possible To present scenarios of health crises and epidemic outbreaks on a global basis, STEM allows us to do this - and to prepare accordingly."
STEM is one of the key technologies developed as part of the global initiative to treat epidemics, a collaboration led by IBM together with over 20 research institutions and public health organizations from around the world, designed to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. The new tool meets the standards for integrating infrastructure systems into the world of health services - which allows it to access a wide variety of information sources, including clinics, hospitals, laboratories and other entities.
The contribution of the IBM laboratory in Haifa includes the user interface in the Eclipse environment - and an infrastructure system developed in collaboration with IBM's Watson laboratory in the USA that enables the collection of epidemiological information on infectious diseases and the sharing of this information between different entities. STEM draws the information about the diseases from the system developed in Haifa, and presents the situation - or builds development scenarios on the basis of this information. STEM allows immediate examination of possible action scenarios and analysis the result of any such action scenario, such as closing airports, vaccination of defined populations, and so on.
IBM's contribution to the open source code community includes a general epidemiological model framework, which will be available to software developers. These, can change and adjust the configuration of the models, according to their special requirements. These models include an analysis of different populations and the relationship between diseases - in the way of developing treatment and preparation plans. The donation is also intended to promote the cooperation between governments, researchers and other bodies in the field of health. Users will be able to share epidemiological models they create, in addition to the integrated software components they build using Eclipse.
