Publications

In response to the protracted Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the international public health community called for increased attention, coordination, and resources to support the response. The use of real-time modeling and analytics to support public health decision-making (also known as “outbreak science”) has been an important capability that has grown during previous outbreaks [1–3]. Despite the informative role that infectious disease models played in the recent DRC outbreak [4–7], cross-talk within the infectious disease modeling community and between infectious disease modelers and model stakeholders, such as health agencies, may be limited. Lack of communication can reduce the potential use of modeling capability to inform outbreak prevention and mitigation strategies. For example, mathematical modelers may not be aware of questions that would be particularly useful for guiding the response, such as the location and staffing of Ebola treatment units. On the other end, public health teams may not be aware of outbreak features that may signal improvement or worsening of incidence or increased potential for spatial spread.

To improve communication and create awareness of the efforts of modeling groups already studying the DRC Ebola outbreak, we—an existing outbreak science working group—convened an informal modeling research coordination group to align efforts around infectious disease modeling of the outbreak (Fig 1). Each month, two modeling teams were invited to present their preliminary research to the group via video conferencing. Participants were invited to ask questions, make suggestions and critiques, and share ideas. Broader discussion of current challenges and open questions in directing the response were encouraged. Over 170 participants from governments, academia, and nongovernmental organizations from around the world signed up to receive invitations to the meeting. Approximately 40 stakeholders were on any given call, including those with Ebola response activities. Teleconference calls were supplemented by communication through a Slack-enabled virtual workspace, public and private GitHub repositories, and a mailing list. The emphasis on this modeling coordination framework was to facilitate scientific research exchange.