Epi News Briefs 7/02/01

 

Editor's Quote of the Week "The cohort study is the Swiss army knife of epidemiologic designs."   Clarice Weinberg, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, speaking at the Congress of Epidemiology 2001 in Toronto, June 2001.

A full report on the Congress of Epidemiology 2001 will appear in the July issue of The Epidemiology Monitor. Subscribe now to obtain full coverage.

Paneth Delivers KeyNote Address At Society For Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research (SPER)

One of the more well received talks at the Congress of Epidemiology in Toronto last month was a keynote address given by Michigan State University’s Nigel Paneth.

Paneth’s address was entitled “Folate, Sleep Position, and Other Cheap Thrills,” and was subtitled more informatively as ‘The Triumph of Low Technology In Child Health”. Paneth sought to show how much more expensive are the improvements to health which are based on technology as opposed to public health interventions involving behavioral changes.

He urged his colleagues to continue their search for modifiable risk factors which are based on health behaviors and social processes and to point out the cost effectiveness of these types of interventions.

 

Columbia Symposium Held To Honor Zena Stein and Mervyn Susser

“This symposium honors two extraordinary people ... who have
reshaped our understanding of how politics, science and human health are integrally connected.” That’s how David Rosner, Professor of History and Public Health, Columbia University, summarized the recent symposium to honor Stein and Susser.

According to Michigan State’s Nigel Paneth, the epidemiologic community knows the Stein-Susser team principally for their outstanding research in reproductive, perinatal and
developmental epidemiology, as well as their interests in methods and
causal reasoning. But the remarkable symposium held at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University on May 25, 2001 entitled “Turning The World Around: Public Health, Human Rights, and the Establishment of Civil Societies”, honored a different facet of their life's work. Zena and Mervyn have also long been in the forefront of those public health scientists who see their research as intimately connected to the problems of society - inequality of opportunity, political repression, dispossession and exile.

New Editors At Epidemiology Reaffirm Old Policy To Restrict Discussion Of Policy Implications In Research Papers

The new editor of Epidemiology, Allen Wilcox, and his co-editors Dale Sandler, Jonathan Samet, and David Savitz have reexamined the policy of discouraging recommendations in research reports and have decided to maintain the old policy against such recommendations. The editors expressed thier views in a July editorial in the journal. The editors invited commentaries from Noel Weiss, Stephen Teret and Daniel Greenbaum which were also published in the July issue and were considered by the editors prior to arriving at their decision.

Two of the commentators argued in favor of restricting the discussion section of scientific papers while Teret argued against the restriction. The editors did note the importance of placing findings in the context of existing information and want to enhance the value of data for the development of policy by urging investigators to discuss the uncertainty level which surrounds their findings. Also, the editors said they would select papers "most likely to advance science, and influence policy."

 

EpidemiologyWinning Tongue In Cheek Headlines Selected For Humorous Magazine Cover

Ten winning tongue in cheek headlines for our humorous magazinc cover contest have been selected from a larger number of contest entries. Below is the picture of the magazine cover with the winning headlines.

The winning headlines were submitted by the following individuals. Also mentioned below are several runner up headlines which our judges considered very amusing, but alas not everyone could win! The entrants who submitted one or more of the winning headlines will receive $25 for each headline selected.

1. Melissa Adams/Gay Epi Lifestyles: Cross-Over Designs

2. Melissa Adams/Do’s And Dont’s of Epi-Quette

3. Melissa Adams/Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell---Double Blinding In Military Studies

4. Dimitri Prybylski/Confessions Of An Index Case---Time, Place, and Person Revealed!

5. Mark Colvin/Sensitivity Analysis---Are You Really A New Man?

6. Mark Colvin/Absent Sex Life? Lucky You! 38 Sexually Transmitted Diseases You Won’t Get

7. David Morens/Adjusting For Sex In 10 Easy Lessons---What The Kama Sutra Failed To Mention

8. Mary Anne Pietrusiak /Boosting Your Confidence Intervals

9. Mary Anne Pietrusiak/ New Diet Lowers P Values

10. Mary Anne Pietrusiak/Do You Have Survey Phobia? Take Our Quiz and Find Out!!

 

Tongue in Cheek Headline Contest
Runner Up Entries

These were also among our favorites and were submitted by many of the same authors above. In addition, Timothy Jacobs submitted some of the runner up headlines.

 

1. EpiCurves: Our Swinsuit Edition

2. Dating That EpiHunk: How Far To Go When Discussing Epi Methods On Your First Date

3. The Glass Ceiling--Why No Epidemiologist Has Won The Nobel Prize

4. Don’t Let Him Make You Feel Insignificant--Avoiding Negative Associations With Your Biostat Guy

5. How To Convert Survey Refusals--Tips From The Clergy

6. Celeb Sightings: Where To Spot Epi Heart Throbs At Congress 2001

7. Can This Relationship Be Saved? Perilous Interactions!

8. Recall Bias---How To Deny That Affair

9. Eleven Blue Women--Raunchy Humor From America’s Top Female Epidemiologists

10. From Snow To Frost---Epidemiology Tackles Global Warming

11. Confessions Of A Super Data Model

12. nowed Under: The Real Story Behind The Broad Street Pump

13. Bungee Data---Are You Stretching The Limits Of Plausibility In Reporting Your Study Findings?

14. Got Data??---10 Questions Your Thesis Committee Is Sure To Ask You!

15. Dr. Epi-Med--Startling Confessions Of An Epidemiologist Turned Physician

16. Kiss My Disk!! 10 Great Responses To Idiots Who Put Down Epidemiologists

 

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