CDC Funds U-Led Initiative to Strengthen Response to Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Partnerships with the national Veterans Affairs health system and hospitals and health departments in Utah, Washington, Idaho, and Montana will allow organizations to coordinate responses more quickly across the Mountain West region. 

ForeSITE is designed to support decision-makers at every stage of a health threat with data-driven analyses, including:

• Automated alerting that warns of a potential need to investigate and respond
• Parameter estimation to assess the magnitude of risk and to characterize transmission
• Scenario modeling that provides evidence-based support in planning for specific contingencies
• Nowcasting and forecasting to monitor a threat’s current status and guide when and how to deploy interventions
• Economic impact assessment that provides insights into a disease’s effects on business and the economy.

“We see this as a public-academic partnership where we can improve modeling systems and integrate them into day-to-day use in individual health care systems and health departments,” says Lindsay Keegan, Ph.D., the project’s co-lead and a research assistant professor in the U’s Department of Internal Medicine. “Then, they can run the models when they need them.” 

Other project co-leads include Michael Rubin, M.D., Ph.D., professor of internal medicine; Makoto Jones, M.D., associate professor of internal medicine; and Eric Lofgren, Ph.D., associate professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Global Health at Washington State University.