In 2025, Thomas McAndrew, associate professor, department of biostatistics and health data science in the College of Health (COH), received an award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to research and develop a novel approach to infectious disease forecasting. He is creating an innovative tool that looks at how accurately individuals make flu predictions over time and weighing those predictions accordingly in his forecasting.
Now, a new seed grant from Lehigh’s Research Translation AcceLURator will allow McAndrew to extend that work into a real-world application. McAndrew recently received funding from Lehigh’s Research Translation AcceLUrator, a program which helps Lehigh researchers move their innovations beyond the lab to benefit communities, industry and society. Through a Seed Translational Research Project (STRP), he will develop a plan to commercialize the product and establish it as a viable business entity.
“If we had a product called DECISIONCAST, how would you market that to the healthcare and health industry?” McAndrew said. “Are there other markets available where this would be a value add for them? How would you build DECISIONCAST into a C-Corp and a start-up and build a pseudo-business? That’s the main difference.”
McAndrew’s STRP, “Augmenting Societal Impact with a Translation-Optimized Public Health Forecasting Platform,” builds on his NSF-funded research. DECISIONCAST is a real-time forecasting platform that helps public health officials make faster, data-driven decisions during disease outbreaks. This project builds on advances in epidemiological modeling to create a forecasting system that is optimized for translation into real-world public health practice. By combining real-time data, predictive analytics and stakeholder engagement, the platform aims to improve preparedness, reduce the burden of diseases like influenza and support coordinated responses to emerging outbreaks.
While the NSF IHBEM project focuses on scientific questions and expertise, the NSF STRP shifts the emphasis to usability and interface design through the development of a new app.
A multidisciplinary team of College of Health faculty and students are supporting this project. Rochelle Frounfelker, assistant professor in the department of population health, is a co-PI. She is also leading a project to understand the decision-making processes of key stakeholders in the NSF study.
Under McAndrew’s mentorship, students will gain valuable research experience. Anurag Subedi ’26, who is pursuing the MS in data science in the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, has an extensive background in software development and will help build the new software. MPH student Georgia Bromley ’25, G’26 will contribute to the user experience work.
The COH’s Health Data Warehouse, which supports faculty and researchers in health data science, AI-driven analytics and custom software development, is building DECISIONCAST’s software. McAndrew plans to solicit feedback for the platform from a lay audience on Prolific, which he describes as a “crowdsourcing platform for scientists,” and from public health officials through organizations like the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.
The need for more advanced, reliable technology to improve infectious disease forecasting is urgent and substantial. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), seasonal influenza in the United States hospitalizes 425 thousand people each year, resulting in 32 thousand deaths annually. Reducing influenza levels will decrease healthcare spending and greatly impact public health.
During major outbreaks or pandemics, the CDC organizes an Emergency Operations Center (EOC), which coordinates global outbreak information, develops a single guided response to the outbreak and uses technology to monitor and forecast outbreak threats. These centers use a combination of public health expertise, real-time surveillance data and modeling to improve health, leading to enormous reductions in morbidity and mortality.
While EOCs exist at the national and global levels, McAndrew notes that similar infrastructure is often lacking locally. The idea for DECISIONCAST is to “share opinions and data decisions at the state and local level and have your own mini emergency EOC.”
McAndrew sees opportunities for education and training for DECISIONCAST. He would hope to see a College of Health student interning with a public health office and acting as a liaison for the platform, helping public health officials to use DECISIONCAST to support better decision-making at the local level. He is aiming to have the platform built, tested and revised by 2027.
At the College of Health, faculty research like McAndrew’s work in infectious disease modeling and forecasting demonstrates how academic innovation can translate into immediate and meaningful impact on human health.
