Modeling Corporate Epidemiology

TL;DR

This paper introduces a wearable device to collect interaction data in workplaces, enabling realistic epidemic modeling that considers social factors and organizational responses for better disease management.

Contribution

It presents a novel data collection method using Sociometric Badges and develops a model linking productivity and epidemic potential considering social interactions.

Findings

Realistic disease spread simulation based on workplace interaction data

A model balancing productivity and epidemic control

Organizational response strategies tailored to behavioral patterns

Abstract

Corporate responses to illness is currently an ad-hoc, subjective process that has little basis in data on how disease actually spreads at the workplace. Additionally, many studies have shown that productivity is not an individual factor but a social one: in any study on epidemic responses this social factor has to be taken into account. The barrier to addressing this problem has been the lack of data on the interaction and mobility patterns of people in the workplace. We have created a wearable Sociometric Badge that senses interactions between individuals using an infra-red (IR) transceiver and proximity using a radio transmitter. Using the data from the Sociometric Badges, we are able to simulate diseases spreading through face-to-face interactions with realistic epidemiological parameters. In this paper we construct a curve trading off productivity with epidemic potential. We are able to take into account impacts on productivity that arise from social factors, such as interaction diversity and density, which studies that take an individual approach ignore. We also propose new organizational responses to diseases that take into account behavioral patterns that are associated with a more virulent disease spread. This is advantageous because it will allow companies to decide appropriate responses based on the organizational context of a disease outbreak.