Template-driven spatial-temporal outbreak simulation for outbreak detection evaluation.

We developed a non-disease specific template-driven spatial-temporal outbreak simulator for evaluating outbreak detection algorithms. With only a few outbreak parameter settings, our simulator can generate different patterns of outbreak cases either temporally or spatial-temporally using three different generation algorithms: deterministic, independent, Poisson process. Our simulator is flexible, easy to implement and provides case event times rather than aggregated counts. We provide examples of outbreak simulations using linear template functions. Our Template-Driven Simulator is a useful tool for evaluating of outbreak detection algorithms.