About the instructor:
Dr. Michael C. Wimberly is Professor of Geography and Interim Director of the Data Institute for Societal Challenges at the University of Oklahoma. His research focuses on the environmental drivers of malaria and other vector-borne diseases, with an emphasis on spatial modeling for risk prediction and forecasting. This work supports efforts to combat epidemic malaria in Ethiopia and urban malaria in India.
Event Summary
The March 3rd AMMnet seminar was given by Dr. Michael C. Wimberly, who presented on "Incorporating Environmental Determinants of Malaria into Predictive Models for Decision Support." His seminar described the development and implementation of the EPIDEMIA (Epidemic Prognosis Incorporating Disease and Environmental Monitoring for Integrated Assessment) system in Ethiopia. Building on research into environmental modeling of malaria across different regions of Ethiopia, the EPIDEMIA system uses a range of data sources, including temperature, precipitation, vegetation indices, and epidemiological surveillance data, to forecast whether malaria epidemics are likely to occur across Ethiopia's districts. The system aims to address the resurgence of malaria by providing public health officials with both early detection of an epidemic (based on observed cases exceeding a threshold) and early warning (based on forecasted values exceeding a threshold). EPIDEMIA automatically generates weekly reports to help Ethiopia's public health sector target interventions and allocate resources. Moving forward, the project is evolving into EPIDEMIA 2.0 with support from NASA, focusing on containerized software, dynamic dashboards, and the inclusion of other climate-sensitive diseases.
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