Modeling with CSIRO

On Thursday September 19^th a workshop was held at SPHPM with senior scientists from CSIRO’s Preventative Health Flagship and Complex Systems Science attending to discuss a shared vision and collaborative plans for future joint work in epidemiological modeling. 

Presentations from Professor Andrew Forbes, Associate Professor Manoj Gambhir and Professor John McNeil outlined Monash’s capabilities and vision in the modeling sphere.  Dr David Newth (CSIRO, Complex Systems Science) then presented CSIRO’s capabilities and previous work in this and related areas, and particularly their capacity for detailed economic simulation modeling.  Much excited discussion followed concerning the complementarity of skills of the two parties.

CSIRO has extensive expertise in microsimulation modeling of detailed population and economic structures, and Monash provides core public health and clinical content, risk modeling and overarching epidemiological modeling expertise, data linkage skills, plus the capacity to access information in the clinical registries held at SPHPM.  Together these are an ideal blend for large scale systems modeling ranging from population behavioural determinants of health risk factors, clinical and/or public health interventions on risk factors, to health economic and cost effectiveness analyses.  The final session of the workshop consisted of brainstorming ideas for initial collaborative projects that best capitalize on the specific expertise of both parties.