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Fifteen Hundred
Epidemiologists Meet In Miami At The Fourth Epidemiology Congress Of
The Americas
Meeting Reflects
“Where We Are In The Field Today”, Says Congress Chairman
Approximately 1500 epidemiologists mostly from North
and South America converged on hot Miami in late June to enact their
quinquennial ritual of interacting as one discipline rather than
meeting separately around sub-fields. The Congress was bookended by
presentations on climate change and health disparities, both of which
are population health issues imposing extensive public health burden.
In
between, attendees heard plenary sessions on a widely varying range of
topics which challenged attendees to stretch their thinking and learn
from colleagues working on very different problems. In addition, the
Congress featured two “hot topic” sessions on Zika virus and guns in
America and a lively and often amusing methods debate entitled—Causal
parameters without corresponding experiments: Powerful abstractions or
pitiful distractions?
On the first day of the Congress, a social evening was
held aboard the Biscayne Lady Yacht. Attendees had a very pleasant and
relaxing evening on a beautiful ship with great scenery of the Miami
skyline. Attendees enjoyed a buffer dinner and dancing. As the evening
wound down and the boat returned to shore, no one appeared in a hurry
to disembark.
Reflection of the
Field
Sandro Galea,
Chairman of the Congress Executive Committee, told The Epidemiology
Monitor “I think the Congress was the largest ever gathering of
epidemiologists and a great coming together of the concerns of the
field right now, ranging from methodologic debates (in particular
g-formula, complex systems modeling) to concerns with hot topics like
guns and Zika. It showed a maturing field, thinking carefully about
its place in an evolving world.”
Moment of Silence
The Congress took place just 200 miles south of Orlando
where the mass shooting occurred recently and Galea opened the meeting
by asking for a moment of silence for the victims. He noted the
astonishing number of gun deaths which have occurred already this year
in the United States. There have been 133 mass shootings and nearly
6,000 firearm related deaths and over 12,000 injuries so far in 2016.
Galea predicted there will be more than 30,000 gun deaths by the end
of the year.
“Perhaps what is saddest about these events is that we
know the cause of this event—unfettered access to guns, many of them
weapons of war, throughout this country—and we as a country continue
to do little about it, waiting for the next event to happen,” said
Galea.
Everyone was left to wonder how long these preventable
deaths would be allowed to continue and to hope that the political
will would one day align with the public will which is clearly in
favor of stricter gun control measures.
Congress Awards
Several awards were made during the Congress, including the Alfred
Evans award for teaching and mentoring to Emory University’s
Timothy Lash, the Bernard Greenberg award for methods
development and application to Harvard University’s James Robins,
the Abraham Lilienfeld award for overall excellence in
epidemiology to McGill University’s Michael Kramer, and student
paper awards to Sheng-Hsuan Lin at Harvard University (Reuel
Stallones award for methods in epidemiology), Alana Teresa
Brennan at Boston University (Carol Buck award for
international/global epidemiology), and Neil Goldstein at
Drexel University (for general epidemiology). There was no Harold
Dorn award made for translation of epidemiologic evidence into
public health policy and practice.
This
award recognizes an epidemiologist whose career and leadership have
resulted in programs and/or policies that have improved public health.
Sponsoring Association
Plenary Talks
Each of the major sponsoring organizations for the
Congress were able to select a speaker and topic for presentation
during the morning plenary sessions. These talks reflected some of the
major concerns of these societies and their members and are described
briefly in accompanying articles in this issue. Also, articles
describing some of the key sessions at the Congress on climate change,
guns, and health disparities are described elsewhere in this issue. ■
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