Extending geospatial data to support epidemiological modeling

Abstract

This paper describes the Spatiotemporal Epidemiological Modeler (STEM), an open source disease modeling application available through the Eclipse Foundation. The most distinguishing aspect of STEM is that it provides an open platform for researchers to build, run, share, and reuse models of infectious disease. We give a motivation why we believe an extensible architecture is desirable for these types of applications, allowing new models to be built on top of existing proven models. We also describe some of the features in STEM, and explain how GIS data must be extended to support interactions between regions - including the mass action terms that drive transmission of infectious disease. © 2012 Authors.