Levee en masse
23-08-2007, 09:01
(NB: Yes I realise that the case being discussed, the corrupted blood plague, happened a while ago)
An article in the next The Lancet: Infectious Diseases discusses the benefits of using online worlds to shed light on real world epidemics. Unfortunately the full text is behind a paywall (and would probably make for quite dry reading), but here's the abstract
Simulation models are of increasing importance within the field of applied epidemiology. However, very little can be done to validate such models or to tailor their use to incorporate important human behaviours. In a recent incident in the virtual world of online gaming, the accidental inclusion of a disease-like phenomenon provided an excellent example of the potential of such systems to alleviate these modelling constraints. We discuss this incident and how appropriate exploitation of these gaming systems could greatly advance the capabilities of applied simulation modelling in infectious disease research.
There is also a wiki page here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_plague]here (]).
So for all of those addicts of online worlds, you now have the perfect excuse. You aren't wasting your life in imaginary worlds, you are pushing the boundaries of medical knowledge ;)
An article in the next The Lancet: Infectious Diseases discusses the benefits of using online worlds to shed light on real world epidemics. Unfortunately the full text is behind a paywall (and would probably make for quite dry reading), but here's the abstract
Simulation models are of increasing importance within the field of applied epidemiology. However, very little can be done to validate such models or to tailor their use to incorporate important human behaviours. In a recent incident in the virtual world of online gaming, the accidental inclusion of a disease-like phenomenon provided an excellent example of the potential of such systems to alleviate these modelling constraints. We discuss this incident and how appropriate exploitation of these gaming systems could greatly advance the capabilities of applied simulation modelling in infectious disease research.
There is also a wiki page here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_plague]here (]).
So for all of those addicts of online worlds, you now have the perfect excuse. You aren't wasting your life in imaginary worlds, you are pushing the boundaries of medical knowledge ;)