$17.5M in CDC funding establishes the Michigan Public Health Integrated Center for Outbreak Analytics and Modeling (MICOM) | News | | Epidemiology | Epidemic | Research | Modeling
Summary
We are committed to working alongside these outstanding partners to achieve our goal of using data and advanced analytics to support decision-makers at every level of government.Housed with the School of Public Health, MICOM is a multidisciplinary partnership between several University of Michigan unitsincluding the College of Engineering; College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; School of Information; and the Medical Schooland in collaboration with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). The center will support the development of a number of modeling and data analytics tools and pipelines to be integrated into MDHHS workflows to address public health emergencies and current infectious disease threats. Joe Coyle, director of the MDHHS Bureau of Infectious Disease Prevention, is the project lead for the states involvement.Emily Toth Martin, associate professor of Epidemiology at Michigan Public Health and center co-director, says one of MICOMs focus areas will be to integrate and refine these modeling and data analytics tools for state and local public health partners in support of data-driven decision-making and solutions.Systems for evidence-based decision-making and communication of data to public health officials need to be in place before we need to respond to an outbreak. Eisenberg is also working on wastewater surveillance tools, which earlier this year were expanded to include the tracking of Mpox, influenza-A, norovirus GII and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).The ability to monitor and detect disease threats is a critical part of public health. We are excited that MICOM will connect our collaboration between Michigan Public Health and MDHHS to national partners at the CDCs Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics to integrate analytics into public health practice.University of Michigan researchers include: Michelle Ammerman, Rada Mihalcea, Alexander Rodriguez, Jenna Wiens, Krista Wigginton, College of Engineering; Tom Schwarz, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; Adam Lauring and Evan Snitkin, University of Michigan Medical School; Andrew Brouwer, Joseph Eisenberg, Betsy Foxman, Michael Hayashi, Jennifer Head, Sharon Kardia, Arnold Monto, Bhramar Mukherjee, Laura Power, Michael Rubyan, Abram L. Wagner and Jon Zelner, School of Public Health.