Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33406068›Full record

ArticlePLoS computational biology2021

Improving probabilistic infectious disease forecasting through coherence.

Graham Casey Gibson, Kelly R Moran, Nicholas G Reich, Dave Osthus

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PLoS computational biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Machine learning and probabilistic approaches for forecasting infectious disease transmission and cases.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Multiscale influenza forecasting.Nature communications · 2021
    Article
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Graham Casey GibsonStatistical Sciences Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States of America.ORCID 0000-0002-0370-9846
Kelly R MoranStatistical Sciences Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States of America.ORCID 0000-0003-3551-2885
Nicholas G ReichDepartment of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts, United States of America.ORCID 0000-0003-3503-9899
Dave OsthusStatistical Sciences Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States of America.ORCID 0000-0002-4681-091X

Funding

Influenza Forecasting Center of Excellence at University of Massachusetts AmherstU01IP001122 · IP · UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST · PI REICH, NICHOLAS G · 2019 to 2023
$5.4M
Statistical methods for real-time forecasts of infectious disease: expanding dynamic time-series and machine learning approaches for pandemic scenariosR35GM119582 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST · PI Nicholas G Reich · 2016 to 2026
$4.8M
ACL HHS U01IP001122NCIRD CDC HHS U01 IP001122NIGMS NIH HHS R35 GM119582
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

With an estimated $10.4 billion in medical costs and 31.4 million outpatient visits each year, influenza poses a serious burden of disease in the United States. To provide insights and advance warning into the spread of influenza, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) runs a challenge for forecasting weighted influenza-like illness (wILI) at the national and regional level. Many models produce independent forecasts for each geographical unit, ignoring the constraint that the national wILI is a weighted sum of regional wILI, where the weights correspond to the population size of the region. We propose a novel algorithm that transforms a set of independent forecast distributions to obey this constraint, which we refer to as probabilistically coherent. Enforcing probabilistic coherence led to an increase in forecast skill for 79% of the models we tested over multiple flu seasons, highlighting the importance of respecting the forecasting system's geographical hierarchy.

Indexed as

Models, StatisticalAlgorithmsCommunicable DiseasesComputational BiologyDatabases, FactualForecastingHumansInfluenza, HumanLeast-Squares AnalysisUnited States

Identifiers

PMID33406068
PMCPMC7837472

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.