A soft, abstract background featuring blended shades of blue, purple, and white with smooth gradients—an ideal setting for an Operation Outbreak theme, with no distinct shapes or objects.
In the Field

Operation Outbreak for Professionals

Why Operation Outbreak?

Operation Outbreak, a spin-out of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, is a mobile app–based simulation that uses Bluetooth to model the spread of a fictional pathogen through a population in real time.

This unique experience offers a realistic, low-risk environment to test response strategies, explore human behavior, and practice decision-making.

Professionals use it to:

  • Pressure-test response plans against live transmission.
  • Exercise interagency coordination and decision-making under uncertainty and time pressure.
  • Surface gaps in surveillance, risk communication, and chain of command protocols.
  • Practice scenarios involving deliberate release, novel pathogens, attribution challenges, and contested information environments.
  • Elevate conferences, meetings, and public-facing events.
A person in a blue medical uniform and stethoscope holds a smartphone displaying the Operation Outbreak app, showing a red screen with a sad face icon, "VERY SICK," and health status indicators.

Who is it for?

Operation Outbreak is built for the people who prepare for, and lead the response to, health security events:

  • Public health and emergency preparedness teams exercising surge response, surveillance, and risk communication.
  • Biosecurity and national security professionals running deliberate-release and dual-use scenarios.
  • Law enforcement and investigators practicing attribution, evidence handling, and coordination with public health partners.
  • Researchers studying transmission dynamics, human behavior, and decision-making under outbreak conditions.

Simulations are tailored to your objectives and scale — from small meetings to multi-agency events, conferences, and full field trainings.

Two people wearing blue safety vests, part of the Operation Outbreak initiative, walk down a hallway lined with blue lockers and overhead lights, heading away from the camera.
A soft purple gradient background with subtle hints of blue and green, inspired by Operation Outbreak, blending smoothly with a bright white area in the lower right corner, creating an abstract and calming effect.

Trusted in Practice

Operation Outbreak supports the recurring Training Course in Pathogen Detection and Biosecurity co-hosted by the United Nations Biological Weapons Convention Implementation Support Unit and the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. The team has led tabletop simulations on early outbreak response, using real-time participant data to drive decision-making and strengthen global biosecurity preparedness.

Learn more about the experience here.

Get Started

Whether you’re scoping a tabletop exercise, designing a multi-agency exercise, or evaluating tools for your preparedness program, we’d welcome the conversation.

Explore our Experience page to see how the simulation runs, then reach out to our team to request a demo, discuss a partnership, or plan your first exercise.