Purpose
To be deleted
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)
In the spring of 2024, ASTHO held a five-part learning series to provide state and territorial public health staff with a basic understanding of disease forecasting.
Course title: Disease Forecasting Basics: Part 1 and Part 2
Target audience: Epidemiologists, Data scientists, Public health professionals
Time commitment: 2 hours
Knowledge level: Beginner
Platform: YouTube
Content: These introductory sessions provide public health staff with an overview of disease models and forecasts, including a brief history of their use.
Course title: Workforce Challenges and Training Opportunities (Part 3)
Target audience: Health department leadership, Public health professionals, Policymakers
Time commitment: 1 hour
Knowledge level: Beginner
Platform: YouTube
Content: Explores workforce challenges and opportunities around modeling and forecasting, including innovative ideas for jurisdictions to address staffing issues.
Course title: Communicating About Disease Forecasting (Part 4)
Target audience: Health communicators, Epidemiologists, Public health professionals
Time commitment: 1 hour
Knowledge level: Intermediate
Platform: YouTube
Content: Highlights the need for clear, transparent, and timely communication of modeling results, including exploring the challenges of communicating uncertainty.
Course title: Communicating with Policymakers (Part 5)
Target Audience: Epidemiologists, Data scientists, Public health professionals
Time commitment: 1 hour
Knowledge level: Intermediate
Platform: YouTube
Content: Provides an overview of key considerations when briefing policymakers and some strategies to use when interacting with legislators.
Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE)
Course title: Infectious Disease Modeling 101 for Public Health
Target audience: Epidemiologists, Public health professionals
Time commitment: 1 hour
Platform: CSTE Learn
Knowledge level: Beginner
Content: Developed with subject matter experts from CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP), this session describes the fundamentals of infectious disease models, and ways in which models can be used for public health.
epiENGAGE
Course title: How to Think Like a Modeler
Target audience: Epidemiologists and Public health professionals
Time commitment: 1 hour
Knowledge level: Beginner
Platform: Canvas (Course is free for participants, but account creation is needed to register.)
Content: Developed by the epiENGAGE Insight Net Center, this course introduces the topic of mathematical modeling by defining types of models that exist, describing how models are produced, and highlighting the public health impact they can have through a case study.
Johns Hopkins University
Course title: Infectious Disease Transmission Models for Decision-Makers
Target audience: Epidemiologists, Policymakers, Public health professionals
Time commitment: 4 hours
Knowledge level: Beginner
Platform: Coursera
Content: Covers the basic principles of infectious disease models and how modeling and forecasting can be used for practical public health decision-making.
Course title: Infectious Disease Modeling in Practice
Target audience: Epidemiologists, Data scientists, Public health professionals
Time commitment: 3 hours
Knowledge level: Intermediate
Platform: Coursera
Content: Delves a little deeper into the models themselves, describing the differences between model types and key elements of their structure—with real world, applied examples.
National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)
In 2024-2025, NACCHO hosted a Forecasting Tools Webinar Series for local health department staff. These webinars focused on tools that local health departments may adapt for their own uses, such as codes and dashboards.
Course title: Episode 1: epiENGAGE Outbreak Simulator
Target audience: Epidemiologists and Public health professionals
Time commitment:1 hour
Knowledge level: Intermediate
Platform: NACCHO University (Course is free for participants, but NACCHO University account is needed to register.) google.com
Content: The epiENGAGE Outbreak Simulator was designed by the Meyers Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), as a part of Insight Net. This tool is designed to simulate various pandemic scenarios and facilitate real-time intervention strategies. Users can select from a variety of pre-defined scenarios, customize initial conditions, and implement interventions, all while visualizing outcomes over time.
Course title: Episode 2: CORI Measles Outbreak Tools
Target audience: Epidemiologists and Public health professionals
Time commitment:1 hour
Knowledge level: Beginner
Platform: NACCHO University (Course is free for participants, but NACCHO University account is needed to register.)
Content: The Center for Outbreak Response Innovation (CORI), a part of Insight Net, provides an overview of their measles scenario-based risk assessments, U.S. Measles Map Dashboard, and REDCap-based tools that help streamline case investigation, contact tracing, and data collection during measles outbreaks. The session features off-the-shelf tools for local health departments, including an outbreak response template and other ready-to-use resources designed to support rapid deployment.