142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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A Unique Tool for Understanding Infectious Diseases – Introducing FRED Navigator

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014

Molly Eggleston, MPH, CPH, MCHES , Public Health Dynamics Laboratory, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Joan Lakoski, Ph.D. , School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
The Models of Infectious Disease Agents Study (MIDAS) National Center of Excellence at the University of Pittsburgh is a dynamic collaboration of scientists who develop and use computational models to study infectious diseases.  Pitt MIDAS uses agent-based modeling (ABM) through its own, open source, object-oriented system, the Framework for Replication of Epidemic Dynamics (FRED). By making FRED widely available, the goal of providing large-scale agent-based epidemic models more useful to the policy-making, research, and education communities can be achieved.

This session will describe current efforts with FRED, such as the FRED Mobile Application and FRED Navigator.  These user-friendly ABMs surpass traditional analytic methods because they visualize geospatial dynamics. For example, FRED Navigator hosts movies of the same flu striking different communities and zip codes.

FRED Navigator is designed allows entry- level students and public health professionals to explore the dynamics of infectious disease at the location where they reside.  It has accompanying materials for instructor-led lessons that can be useful in a classroom setting.  Results from two pilot tests in Allegheny County, PA, will be shared.

The FRED Mobile Application can produce a map and epidemiology curves for a given R0 in every county in the United States and for selected international locales.  It has an attractive interface and is able to adapt to multiple screen sizes. Future works on the FRED mobile app includes converting this mobile website into a hybrid application that would be able to download to the user’s device.

Learning Areas:

Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Explain the value of a user-friendly agent-based model for public health decision- making. Identify one available tool for local infectious disease modeling and planning.

Keyword(s): Epidemiology, Public Health Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am staff to the University of Pittsburgh’s Models of Infectious Disease Agents Study (MIDAS) National Center of Excellence. My tasks include promoting computational modeling as a tool for decision-makers, as well as models for disease prevention and pandemic planning.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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