2006 Congress of Epidemiology
I hope you already have your calendar marked to come to the 2006 Congress of Epidemiology (a.k.a. “2nd North American Congress of Epidemiology”), which is now just around the corner: June 21-24 at the Seattle Westin Hotel.
At the Congress, we shall hold a mid-year business meeting for the Section, from 6:00-7:00 p.m. on Friday, June 23, 2006, in Cascade A at the Westin. Your Section leadership and I look forward to personally greeting you there. We also hope to host some times to socialize informally – please check the bulletin board at the Congress. For those of you not yet active, we are open and friendly, and we hope you will choose to become active in our section, whether you are a senior or junior epidemiologist or a student! Our attitude is “can-do”!
The Congress is being sponsored by three societies – the APHA Epidemiology Section, the American College of Epidemiology and the Society for Epidemiologic Research. These three societies shared the leadership in organizing the Congress and developing its program, with the SER staff providing superb meeting support. The Congress is furthermore co-sponsored or supported by 15 additional epidemiology societies! Registration is open at <http://www.epicongress2006.org>. In addition to the pre-conference workshops, plenary sessions, and 36 symposia, about 800 research posters on a broad range of topics will be on display. Detailed program information is posted at that same Web address.
The APHA Epidemiology Section leadership has played a major role in the development of the Congress. Betsy Foxman, who was our Section chair in 2001 at the time of the first Congress, spurred the concept to make this a regular event. Our Section hosted the leadership from the other epidemiology societies at an APHA Annual Meeting to formulate plans. Dr. Foxman is the Congress chair, as well as the current president of ACE. Dr. McKeown (see below) is the chair of the Poster Sessions. And I have served as the Awards Committee chair, overseeing the Congress’ major awards (Lilienfeld and Distinguished Epidemiologists), three student paper awards, 19 student travel awards, and several international scholar awards. Other section members serving on the organizing/program committee include James Gaudino (our section chair-elect) and Louise-Anne McNutt (our past program chair). Our theme has included a focus on recognizing work with potential or demonstrated public health impact and extensive student involvement, including many special events designed with the student in mind. See below for a special message from our APHA Student Assembly liaisons, describing several student opportunities in our Section.
2006 Congress Poster Judges Still Needed
The Congress plans to recognize the three best posters in each of the three poster sessions, but to do that we need MANY poster judges. If you would be willing to evaluate 10 - 20 posters at one (or more) of the poster sessions and then work with other judges to select the top three, please contact Robert McKeown (rmckeown@gwm.sc.edu) and let him know of your willingness to help. Indicate your preferred topic areas, and whether you have a preference for which session you judge. The schedule for poster sessions is: Session 1: June 21, 7:30-8:30 p.m.; Session 2: June 22, 5:00-6:00 p.m.; Session 3: June 23, 5:00-6:00 p.m. Thanks for your help in recognizing outstanding presentations of research in posters. By the way, Dr. McKeown is our Section’s past-past chair, and he is on the Board of ACE!
APHA Policy Review
The APHA policy development process was described in considerable detail in some past newsletters. (To find these, you will need to visit the archive of past newsletters at <http://www.apha.org/newsletter/index.cfm?fuseaction=archive&secid=5>. There, you can check out the following in past epidemiology section newsletters:
a) Spring 2003 “New Directions and Challenges for APHA and Public Health“and
b) Winter 2004 “APHA Governing Council 2003: Highlights from the Epidemiology Section.” (While visiting here, you may wish to look at other past articles, too. As our new web site develops, we hope to make it easy for you to navigate to these resources.)
Briefly, draft policies are submitted for review in February, and undergo some initial comment (particularly by various sections and interested parties) and are reviewed in detail by the APHA Science Board and the Joint Policy Committee. Comments are sent to the policy authors, and revisions are submitted in June. These are reviewed again by the JPC (in late June or early July). Those policies that the JPC recommends should move forward are then posted for the entire membership. The Governing Councilors of our Section carefully review these and gather and integrate comments into written reviews, the Section leadership discusses these on our monthly conference calls and then at our business meetings, and written comments are delivered by us to the Open Hearings held on Sunday afternoon of the APHA Annual Meeting. The final wording and decisions concerning approval are made by the APHA Governing Council at its Tuesday session. For the last decade, our section has been very active in contributing to the policy-making and approval processes. Since Governing Council representation is based on section size, and since Epidemiology is the second largest APHA section, we have significant voting power. But much of our impact derives from our contributing appropriate, careful, data-driven analyses of policies. Please share your thoughts on policies with us (see some specific directions below). We also encourage you to consider developing policies, and to seek Section help in the process. The current Science Board chair, Geraldine Perry Allen, is a member of our section, and Elizabeth A. Bancroft and I currently also serve on the Science Board. As I am one of the three Science Board representatives to the JPC and as John S. Neuberger is one of the three Education Board representatives to the JPC, our section currently has significant input into the policy development processes at APHA.
Pandemic Flu Campaign
The APHA Executive Board and APHA staff will direct the focus of APHA, in part, on “causes” selected by the organization’s leadership. These will serve as major priorities of APHA, and fund raising related to the “cause” will be vigorously conducted. Pandemic influenza has been selected as one of the first causes. Alan Hinman (the GC Speaker and a Section member) and I will oversee a new, comprehensive pandemic flu policy, with much staff assistance being provided by Courtney Perlino. It is now going through the review process described above. The draft from early Spring is posted on the “members only” portion of the APHA Web site. In order to access it, log on to the members-only portion, scroll down to “V. Policies” and click on 2006 Proposed Policies . Under “GROUP - C ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE” you will see “Pandemic Flu” – click on it to see the draft, a 61-page policy (You will be able to reach later versions of proposed policies in a similar manner). In the meantime, please share your thoughts and any comments to help us improve this policy (as well as any others of interest to you).