IBM has built a modeler that uses big data and analytics to help predict infectious disease factors and trends, Fierce BioTech IT reported Monday.

Nick Paul Taylor writes IBM developed the open source platform in a partnership with researchers from the Johns Hopkins University and the University of California.

The modeler works to analyze disease information and data for responses to epidemics and outbreaks.

“We have to be ready at the drop of a hat to parse through disparate data from global disease surveillance systems, conduct computationally intense research and transfer our knowledge to public health officials to help them visualize population health, detect outbreaks, develop new models and evaluate the effectiveness of policies,” Simone Bianco of UCLA said, according to the report.