The EPIWORK project proposes a multidisciplinary research effort aimed at developing the appropriate framework of tools and  knowledge needed for the design of epidemic forecast infrastructures to be used in by epidemiologists and public health scientists. The project is a truly interdisciplinary effort, anchored to the research questions and needs of epidemiology research by the participation in the consortium of leading epidemiologists, public health specialists and mathematical biologists.

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The EE² 2nd International Workshop co-organized by the Epiwork and EpiFor project has been a great success!

The Workshop took place in the magnificent venue provided by Courmayeur and its surrounding landscape. More than 30 invited speakers, including some of the most prominent experts in medical epidemiology and infectious disease modeling, gave talks and seminars over three days, from January 18 to January 21, about the key topics of the meeting:

• Large scale stochastic simulations;
• Networks;
• The impact of population structure on transmission;
• Surveillance and policy making;
• Evolution and epidemiology.

Furthermore, the Workshop featured a 3-day long poster session and four Round Tables which gathered the participants in lively discussions about four selected topics of special interest for the community:

• Vaccines;
• Models of livestock of infectious diseases;
• Models and human public health policy;
• Models, data needs, and forecasts.

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Several works developed within the Epiwork project have been selected to contribute to the Third International Conference on Infectious Disease Dynamics “Epidemics3” that took place in from November 29th to December 2nd in Boston, MA, USA.

Epidemics3 is a wide-ranging conference that deals with infectious disease dynamics in the broadest sense: it includes modeling as well as field and laboratory studies. The conference scope covers both within-host dynamics of infectious agents and dynamics at the population level, particularly the interaction between the two. Areas of emphasis include: spread, transmission, population and public health as well as policy aspects of control and prevention.

Epiwork contributed with poster presentations and talks. Among the Committee Members, there’s prof. John Edmunds, coordinator of Flusurvey, the UK node of WP5 Influenzanet network for influenza surveillance.

One of the poster presentations was about the WP4 Computational Platform, based on the GLEaMviz software.

The GLEaMviz computational tool, a publicly available software to explore realistic epidemic spreading scenarios at the global scale: GLEaMviz Simulator is a multiplatform application that allows to:

• run simulations to assess epidemic scenarios
• predict infectious disease spread
• manage health emergencies

It is based on GLEaM, a stochastic metapopulation approach that integrates high-resolution sociodemographic and mobility data to simulate the spread of epidemics at the worldwide scale. GLeaMviz Simulator allows you to explore your epidemic simulations through a highly flexible disease model, a customizable simulation scenario, and an easy to use visualization platform. Download the software and run your simulations!

“Facing the Challenge of Infectious Diseases” is the tagline for the 2nd International Workshop co-organized by the Epiwork and Epifor projects. This workshop will take place on January 18-20 2012, in Courmayeur (Aosta), Italy. It will bring together experts in the field of infectious disease modeling to discuss the advances reached in the use of sophisticate modeling, computational approaches, and ICT applications in the area of infectious diseases. A special focus will be on methods for generating rapid parameter estimates, real time forecasting and the interface between policy making and modeling. A key aim of the workshop is also the discussion of the research priorities for the future of computational modeling and ICT applications in the analysis of infectious disease spreading.

More information can be found on the workshop’s website.