ABSTRACT
Bayesian modeling relies on the evaluation of a posterior distribution and functionals of that distribution. Hence any methods that can accurately estimate posterior features can be useful in the disease mapping context. Software such as WinBUGS, OpenBUGS, JAGS and CARBayes are all sampling-based and can be used for many of the model applications considered. Alternative algorithms that can provide approximations to posterior distributions are also available and can provide fast computation. This chapter focuses on software implementation and comparison of available software. It discusses R software and WinBUGS/OpenBUGS. The chapter presents a basic R and WinBUGS/OpenBUGS review. In particular, maps allows the visualizing of polygonal data and with further programing allows the creation of thematic maps. The thematic mapping package tmap is relatively new but has sophisticated multi-map capabilities. qtm is a function within tmap which can provide fast plotting based on polygon objects and dataframes.
