Friday, June 8, 2007

IBM Releases Free Pandemic Modeling Tool

IBM announced today that it is releasing its Spatiotemporal Epidemiological Modeler (STEM), software for public health scientists worldwide to forecast how diseases will spread in the same way meteorologists predict the paths of storms, free of charge.

The program provides base information, such as road maps and macro-economics, and allows public health officials to "tweak" it with local details such as air traffic patterns. Information available from anywhere in the world can be added to customize programs that forecast how particular diseases will likely spread in local regions.

IBM's open-source software, a refinement of a program released three years ago, is available to scientists, researchers and public health protectors worldwide through the nonprofit Eclipse Foundation.

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