Epi News Briefs 7/30/01

 

Editor's Quote of the Week "...from 20 years of experience, I will put my money on epidemiologic analysis every time..." Paul Portney, Economist, and President and Senior Fellow at Resources for the Future speaking in 1998 at a Hopkins symposium on Translating Epi Data Into Public Policy. An article about the symposium is included in Epi Wit and Wisdom and is reprinted on that section of this website.

More Than 100 Congress Of Epidemiology Photos Now Available For Viewing

By special arrangement with Richard Kwok, University of North Carolina epidemiology student and amateur photographer, the Epidemiology Monitor has prepared a photo gallery of more than 100 exclusive photos shot at the Congress of Epidemiology 2001. Each photo was obtained with permission and the names of the individuals are included with each photo for easy identification. This gives epidemiologists a chance to link names with faces in a way that has not been easy to do in the past.

Photos were taken of colleagues engaged in various activities at the Congress in various locations. Thus, the photos include shots of colleagues at their posters, out in the surrounding park, listening to presentations, touring the art gallery during the reception, and many other scenes. Viewers can look at a batch of photos all at once by viewing the thumbnail photos or viewers can click on any individual photo and view a larger version

To view the photo gallery, click here

 

Epidemiologist Creates List of Triumphs in Epidemiology

Are you sick and tired of hearing smoking and lung cancer used over and over again as the prime example of what epidemiologists do and contribute to public health? Well, your days of misery are over. Thanks to Diana Pettiti, Kaiser Permanente epidemiologist, a new list of 55 contributions which epidemiology has made to public health has been prepared. Most of the findings were of risk factors which increased the risk of disease, but about a third were for factors which protect against disease.

Speaking at the Congress of Epidemiology 2001 in Toronto, Pettiti mentioned she had prepared the list in anticipation of being on the panel at the Congress. She did not get to show her list at the time, so The Epi Monitor arranged to obtain the list and is making it available to the epidemiology community.

Criteria

The criteria for including risk or protective factors on the list were 1) there is widespread agreement that the association is causal, and 2a) the initial hypothesis was derived from an epidemiologic study (sometimes incidentally) and was subsequently confirmed as causal in a clinical trial or epidemiologic study, or 2b) an initial clinical observation was made or a cluster was noted and subsequent epidemiologic studies were able to explain the initial the initial observations to discover or establish the risk or protective factor.

Call For More Examples

The Epi Monitor invites readers to submit other examples both historical and modern. Simply click on "Contact Us" and send an email with your nominations for the list and with an accompanying justification for each example. As new contributions to epidemiology are reviewed and qualify to be added, the list will be modified and kept current on The Epi Monitor website.

Call For Commentaries and Anecdotes

In addition, we would like to add short commentaries by epidemiologists who can relate anecdotes or other interesting facts and observations about the discoveries listed here. Each discovery started as a hypothesis and had to navigate the demanding pathway from initial observation through subsequent findings and across the threshold of causality before being widely accepted. Any readers familiar with this pathway for any of the discoveries are invited to submit comments. Dr Petitti offered to get the ball rolling in the near future with a couple or three paragraphs about toxic shock syndrome and tampon use which she is very familiar with. We will post these "stories of discovery" as we receive them.

To view the list, click here

 

July Issue Of The Epi Monitor Includes Extensive Coverage Of The Congress Of Epidemiology 2001

The latest issue of the Epidemiology Monitor includes several articles about the recent Congress of Epidemiology in Toronto. Among the articles are the following:

1) a report on the opening session during which the presidents of the four sponsoring epidemiology organizations addressed the participants on some aspect of epidemiology today.

2) extensive coverage of the opening plenary session which was the most provocative session at the Congress and one which kept attendees talking through out the week.

3) a report on the awards luncheon with comments by or about the two Lilienfeld award winners

4) a detailed profile of the findings presented by the student prize winner, including notes about her interesting background as an immigrant from the former Soviet Union.

5) a thought provoking article reporting on the presentation by Kate Pickett, a University of Chicago epidemiologist who estimates that more than 8,000 SIDS deaths might have been prevented if epidemiologic evidence had been acted on sooner.

6) a report on the rousing talk given by Nigel Paneth on “Folate, Sleep Position, and Other Cheap Thrills” which sought to show how the improvements to health which are based on technology are much more expensive than public health interventions involving behavioral changes.

To read the headlines and stories, click here

 

Editors Of GIS Book Call For Chapter

Omar Khan and Ric Skinner, editors of a proposed book “Geographic Information Systems and Health Applications”, have issued a call for chapters to colleagues in public. private, and academic sectors . The book is to be published in 2001 by Idea Group Publishing. The editors are interested in practice-oriented chapters as well as those addressing academic issues of GIS. The chapters should appeal to a wide range of those working in GIS and health related fields and should not have been published elsewhere.
If interested, contact the editors at okhan@jhsph.edu or wskinner@fast.net

 

Held Over:

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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