The BU SBRP is developing mechanisms to communicate with government agencies, to identify and transfer technology developed in the SBRP to appropriate stakeholders, and to communicate research findings to broad audiences.
In 2005, the Research Translation Core invested considerable effort into working with local water companies to provide them with a static hydraulic model of their water distribution systems using standard EPA software (EPANet). The model is also being used for exposure assessment in Dr. Ashengrau’s SBRP project.
That model and newly developed mapping software are being provided in Open Source code (commented and documented) to allow other researchers and state and local public health agencies to use it to map disease occurrence using GIS platforms.
Three other web-based projects are well underway to further the objective of communicating with diverse audiences:
A public-oriented website that incorporates a guidebook for communities to use in deciding whether to ask health scientists for a health study and a database of reagents and other tools developed as part of the SBRP program to be made freely available to other researchers.
A second website, perhaps in the format of a wiki platform (we have started the development using the OpenSource TWiki platform) is being built for internal project communication. < their on postings new manner accessible easily an in available make to programs SBRP all allow built being is websites of use the for feed RSS>
As part of the BU partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency Region I and collaboration with other SBRP projects in New England, Tom Webster and Veronica Vieira spoke about Spatial Epidemiology of Breast, Lung, and Colorectal Cancer on Cape Cod to an audience of about 50 at the EPA New England Regional office, part of a seminar series that is a collaboration between SBRP and EPA Region 1.
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