Models & Tools

The following externally produced benchmark dose applications can be used in addition to the models available via BMDS and BMDS Online.

• The PROAST software developed by the Netherlands' National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) requires R or S-plus to run, but has some advantages over BMDS, including the ability to include covariates in an analysis. The U.S. EPA and RIVM are working together to achieve consistency between the BMDS and PROAST software packages.
• The Health Assessment Workspace Collaborative (HAWC) is an online application designed to store, display, and synthesize multiple data sources for the purpose of supporting the development of human health and environmental assessments of pollutants. HAWC documents the overall workflow of developing an assessment, from literature search and systematic review, to data extraction (human epidemiology, animal bioassay, and in vitro assay), dose-response analysis, and finally evidence synthesis and visualization.
• BMDExpress provides a workflow to transform toxicogenomic data into benchmark doses for aggregated collections of genes. BMDExpress is the product of an ongoing collaboration between the National Institute of Environmental Health (NIEHS) Division of the National Toxicology Program (NTP), Health Canada, US EPA, and Sciome LLC, with Sciome primarily responsible for designing and implementing the resulting software.
• ToxicR is an R package that utilizes the core functionality of the US EPA's Benchmark Dose Software and the NTP's BMDExpress, which was developed in unison with researchers from the NIEHS. ToxicR is fully interactive and can be used to create custom analysis pipelines within the R programming environment.