Computational Epidemiology

Hmmm.... well, I may have at least found the general term for the field that I am interested in. That would be Computational Epidemiology. Suffice it to say, when someone stands up in front of a group of medical school faculty and basically say, "I want to do academic research on infectious diseases, but I want to use a computer as my laboratory, and I could really care less if my research ever involves any direct patient contact; but ... um... I don't really know what that field of research is called... and, no I have no prior training in any of this (I went to medical school, duh!)but never mind that, give me some time and I'm gonna figure this out!", you get some strange looks.