IBM's technology to counter spread of infectious diseases

IBM has developed an advanced software technology that can help assess transmission of diseases across countries and around the globe to the open source community.

The tool, an IBM statement announced, will aid scientists and public health officials in understanding and planning more efficient responses to health crisis, ultimately providing new tools for protecting masses' health.

The software, known as Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler is now available for use through the Eclipse Open Healthcare Framework Project, hosted at the Eclipse Foundation, the non-profit foundation that guides the Eclipse open source community.

"With growing concerns over potential outbreaks of new strains of disease,and their ability to spread more easily because of modern transportation, our response must be similarly global." said Daniel Dias, director, IBM India Research Laboratory.

STEM represents nearly three years of research, spanning the globe with scientists from IBM's various labs contributing to its creation.

The technology is designed to enable the rapid creation of epidemiological models for how an infectious disease, such as avian influenza or dengue fever is likely to geographically spread over time.

Project Green: IBM also announced on Friday its 'Project Green' in India, which will help companies reduce energy consumption in their offices by up to 50 per cent.

The company had last month announced an investment of one billion dollars a year globally under this project to mobilise its resources dramatically across its businesses to increase the level of energy efficiency in the IT sector.

The project includes launching of new products and services for IBM and its clients. However, the company did not specify how much investment from one billion dollar would come to India.

The Green Datacenter offerings can help conserve energy and cut a typical datacenter cost by half, IBM India Country Manager -- eServer pSeries Jyoti Satyanathan told reporters in New Delhi.

Citing Central Electricity Authority's data Satyanathan said at the current level of 1.30 lakh MW India faces a shortage of about 9 per cent with peak load deficits being higher at 10-11 per cent.