Challenges in Epidemiological Modelling

About

Despite continual advances in medicine, science and technology, infectious diseases still pose a significant risk to human and veterinary health worldwide. In fact, our increasingly connected society only exacerbates the potential for disease spread and the resulting health and economic impact. Epidemiological modelling provides a tool with which we can combat the fallout from such events. Advancements in this area have provided an array of methods for understanding the behaviour of infectious diseases, allowing greater power to predict, prevent and control outbreaks. Whilst there may be high-quality data available, the multi-level interactions between hosts, pathogens and the environment, alongside significant and varied sources of uncertainty, results in a highly complex problem from a modelling point of view.

In this half-day satellite session, we will focus on a broad range of challenges that arise in the context of epidemiological modelling, taking advantage of the wide range of disciplines present at the Conference on Complex Systems 2019 (CCS19). We hope to stimulate discussion across disciplines regarding, but not limited to, issues with data collection and curation, methodology and computation and the gap between research and policy, for both public and veterinary health scenarios.