IBM software to prevent spread of infectious diseases

New Delhi, June 8 (UNI) Leading computer manufacturer IBM has introduced a software technology that can predict spread of infectious diseases among countries and around the globe to the open source community.

The software, known as Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler (STEM), will aid scientists and public health officials to understand and plan more efficient responses to health crises, and provide new tools for protecting population health.

STEM is part of a global pandemic initiative formed by IBM and more than 20 public health institutions worldwide, IBM said in a statement.

It is now available for use through the Eclipse Open Healthcare Framework Project (OHF), hosted at the Eclipse Foundation, the non-profit foundation that guides the Eclipse open source community.

''With growing concerns over potential outbreaks of new strains of disease and their ability to spread more easily because of modern transportation -- the threat of a pandemic certainly is a global phenomenon,'' said Dr Daniel Dias, Director, IBM India Research Laboratory.

STEM, which runs on any operating system, creates a graphical representation of the spread of a disease based on a variety of parametres such as population, geographic and macro-economic data, roadmaps, airport locations, travel patterns and bird migratory routes around the world.

UNI