Communications of the ACM
Pandemic Preparedness
The Texas Pandemic Flu Simulator allows for simulation of flu pandemics across the state of Texas under user-defined scenarios. Antiviral, vaccine, and public health announcement interventions are modeled. Results can be interactively visualized.
Credit: Lauren Ancel Meyers
University of Texas at Austin researcher Lauren Ancel Meyers is working with the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) to enhance data-driven science.
Meyers worked with TACC staff and used the center's systems to forecast H1N1 flu virus infections as the pandemic progressed, and developed visualizations that depicted the spread of the disease. Meyers led the development of the Texas Pandemic Flu Toolkit, a Web-based service that simulates the spread of pandemic flu through the state, forecasts the number of flu hospitalizations, and determines where and when to place ventilators to minimize fatalities. The toolkit also can be used in emergency situations to guide real-time decision-making.
"While the forecasts will not be exact, they give a rough idea of how many people will be hospitalized around the state and when an epidemic may peak," Meyers says.
The toolkit can proactively develop scenarios of probable pandemics and to see how they may impact different locations, age groups, and demographics. TACC's supercomputers also enable data to simultaneously be processed and distributed to a large number of users.
From Texas Advanced Computing Center
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