# Does an epidemiology package exist?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/does-an-epidemiology-package-exist/6063>\
**Category:** Statistics\
**Created:** [September 25, 2017, 2:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/does-an-epidemiology-package-exist/6063 "2017-09-25T14:57:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![malavv](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/malavv/32/1988_2.png) [@malavv](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/malavv)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 2:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/does-an-epidemiology-package-exist/6063/1 "2017-09-25T14:57:18Z")

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Hi!

I am a PhD student in Epidemiology and since I saw Julia, I always wanted to try it out as a “new R”. As an epidemiologist, Epidemiology packages in R that provides support for contingency tables, risk ratios, and others are my bread and butter.

After looking it up online, I could not find a package that included this, even in development. This is why I posted here, is there a package somewhere similar to the “EpiR” in the R language, but in Julia?

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 7:37am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/does-an-epidemiology-package-exist/6063/2 "2017-09-26T07:37:10Z")

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A [search on Github](https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=epidemiology+language%3AJulia&type=Repositories&ref=advsearch&l=Julia&l=) only turns up a very preliminary package, so I assume it will be difficult to find a replacement for `EpiR`. This is the case for most specialized packages, unless someone has needed one and put in the effort already. There is

> **[GitHub - sdwfrost/Gillespie.jl: Stochastic Gillespie-type simulations using...](https://github.com/sdwfrost/Gillespie.jl)**
>
> Stochastic Gillespie-type simulations using Julia. Contribute to sdwfrost/Gillespie.jl development by creating an account on GitHub.

which can be used for epidemiology, but that looks like something completely different.

Developing a package like `EpiR`, however, could be a great way to learn the language.

Also, I am not sure Julia is the “new R”. R has a large community and an ecosystem of polished packages. Where Julia competes at the moment is better language design and potentially faster code (but extracting the full potential requires a bit of learning).

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**Author:** ![nalimilan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nalimilan/32/147_2.png) [@nalimilan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nalimilan)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 7:53am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/does-an-epidemiology-package-exist/6063/3 "2017-09-26T07:53:54Z")

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You may be able to find some of the features you want scattered across several packages, since we try to offer a consistent set of packages providing techniques for all disciplinary fields. For example, the Kaplan-Meier estimator is implemented in Survival.jl, though currently I don’t think there’s a way to compute the instantaneous hazard (shouldn’t be too hard). Measures of association like Kappa should be added to StatsBase. Association tests (including for count data) are provided by HypothesisTests.

But overall I’m afraid lots of features are currently not implemented anywhere.

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**Author:** ![malavv](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/malavv/32/1988_2.png) [@malavv](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/malavv)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 1:11pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/does-an-epidemiology-package-exist/6063/4 "2017-09-26T13:11:16Z")

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Wow, thanks everyone for your answers. Your answers do help me orient myself with what should I expect to be present vs what should I consider rewriting.

Thank you for your help, and for your thoughtful answers.