Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM) is an institute within the Global Health Division of the

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be List of wealthiest charitable foundations, the third largest char ...

. Established in 2008 as part of the Global Good Fund, a non-profit subsidiary of

Intellectual Ventures Intellectual Ventures is an American private equity company that centers on the development and licensing of intellectual property. Intellectual Ventures is one of the top-five owners of U.S. patents, as of 2011. Its business model focuses on b ...

(IV) funded by Bill and Melinda Gates, IDM has transitioned in mid-2020 to the Gates Foundation. IDM specializes in

mathematical modelling of infectious disease Mathematical models can project how infectious diseases progress to show the likely outcome of an epidemic (including Plant disease forecasting, in plants) and help inform public health and plant health interventions. Models use basic assumptions ...

and other quantitative

global health Global health is the health of populations in a worldwide context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problems th ...

research. Its models include malaria, polio, measles,

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

and HIV (with EMOD). IDM releases source code of their stable models to the public. While at IV, the institute was located in

Bellevue, Washington Bellevue ( ) is a city in the Eastside (King County, Washington), Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area, and the f ...

. After the outbreak of

Washington State Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...

, IDM has transitioned to all-remote work with no physical offices. It will eventually relocate to the Gates Foundation's main office in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

Disease modeling software

EMOD is the group's individual-based disease modeling software (not a compartmental model) initially coded 2005. It has been released to the public as

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software an ...

. The software can model malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, measles, dengue, polio and typhoid. In 2020, IDM developed a designated

agent-based model named "Covasim." It was used initially to advise on decision-making during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Oregon The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the U.S. state of Oregon on February 28, 2020. On that day, Governor Kate Brown created a coronavirus response team; on March 8 she declared a state of emergency; and on March 23 she issued a s ...

and in

, gaining national attention. Covasim, coded in

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (prog ...

, is open-source and has been used by independent researchers around the world.

References

Sources

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External links

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COVID-19 Chapter 11: Modeling
'' This Podcast Will Kill You'', May 4, 2020, interview with Dr. Mike Famulare from the Institute for Disease Modeling recorded April 29, 2020 starts at 28:30 Companies based in Bellevue, Washington Epidemiology Simulation software {{COVID-19-stub