title: An extensible spatial and temporal epidemiological modelling system.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This paper describes the Spatiotemporal Epidemiological Modeller (STEM) which is an extensible software system and framework for modelling the spatial and temporal progression of multiple diseases affecting multiple populations in geographically distributed locations. STEM is an experiment in developing a software system that can model complex epidemiological scenarios while also being extensible by the research community. The ultimate goal of STEM is to provide a common modelling platform powerful enough to be sufficient for all modelling scenarios and extensible in a way that allows different researchers to combine their efforts in developing exceptionally good models.
  
  
  RESULTS
  STEM is a powerful modelling system that allows researchers to model scenarios with unmixed populations that are not uniformly distributed and in which multiple populations exist that are being infected with multiple diseases. It's underlying representational framework, a graph, and its software architecture allow the system to be extended by incorporating software components developed by different researchers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This approach taken in the design of STEM creates a powerful platform for epidemiological research collaboration. Future versions of the system will make such collaborative efforts easy and common.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, IBM Almaden Research Centre, San Jose, CA, 95120, USA. daford@almaden.ibm.com
authors.forename: Daniel Alexander
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Ford
authors.forename: James H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kaufman
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Eiron
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006801:Humans; D012985:Software Design; D013029:Space-Time Clustering