The Pandemic Influenza Policy Model, a Planning Tool for Military Public Health Officials

The Pandemic Influenza Policy Model (PIPM) is a collaborative computer modeling effort between the Department of Defense (DoD) and APL. Many helpful computer simulations exist for examining the propagation of pandemic influenza in civilian populations. We believe the mission-oriented nature and structured social composition of military installations may result in pandemic influenza intervention strategies that differ from those recommended for civilian populations. In addition, intervention strategies may differ between military bases because of differences in mission, location, or composition of the population at risk. The PIPM is a web-accessible, user-configurable, installation-specific, quick-response disease model allowing military planners to evaluate various intervention strategies. Innovations in the PIPM include expanding on the mathematics of prior stochastic models by using social network epidemiology, a user-friendly graphical user interface, utilization of DoD personnel databases to more accurately characterize the population at risk, and the incorporation of possible interventions, e.g., pneumococcal vaccine, not examined in previous models.