“Epidemiology Counts” Is New Society for Epidemiologic Research
Podcast Targeted At The General Public
Goal Is To Help
Sort Out What Researchers Really Know And Don’t Know About Health
Topics In The News
A new podcast called
“Epidemiology Counts” intended for a lay audience but which may have
wider appeal in the general epidemiology community has been created by
the Society for Epidemiology Research (SER). The first podcast in the
series entitled “Why Should I Trust That New Health Study” appeared in
January.
Setting the Stage
The idea behind the
first podcast is to set the stage for listeners to better understand
what epidemiology is, what it does, why persons reading or hearing
about epidemiologic research can believe what they learn about and how
they should process and interpret it.
From the Horse’s
Mouth
After preparing
listeners to better understand epidemiology in episode 1, the podcast
creators plan for subsequent episodes to tackle individual diseases or
exposures and describe what is known and what remains unknown about
that particular disease or exposure. Researchers directly involved in
the work that is the subject of future podcasts will be invited to
talk directly about their work in that area. As one organizer told the
Epidemiology Monitor, the idea behind the podcast is for listeners to
“hear it directly from the horse’s mouth”.
First Podcast
The first podcast
assumes that readers will have heard about epidemiology simply from
reading ubiquitous headlines about health, and furthermore that the
lay public will be confused by everything they hear or read because it
is often exaggerated or conflicts with what they have heard before.
Public skepticism
about the latest results from health research is a challenge for
epidemiologists because epidemiologic data are so often the basis for
many of the latest headlines on a health topic, and the skepticism and
confusion about headlines translates into skepticism and confusion
about epidemiology, or even worse, loss of trust in the value of
epidemiologic findings.
Refrain
Why should I believe
anything epidemiologists report is the refrain epidemiologists don’t
like to hear, and the podcast aims to better educate and prepare lay
persons for dealing with what they hear or read, and salvaging the
reputation of epidemiology as a source of reliable, beneficial
information.
The first podcast
admits that finding the causes of disease is tough, however it cites
several past triumphs in epidemiology to remind the lay public of its
value to society.
Origins
According to Sue
Bevan, SER Executive Director, the idea for the podcast was the
brainchild of SER President Enrique Schisterman and was
proposed as one of several initiatives by past presidents of the SER
on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. The organization
then identified Rush University Medical Center’s Bryan James to
chair a committee to oversee the production of the podcasts and Boston
University’s Matthew Fox to serve as the host.
The plan is for the
group to broadcast a new podcast each quarter possibly guided by hot
topics in the headlines since the public is likely to have active
interest in those topics, according to Bevan. For example, a couple of
possible topics for new podcasts include one on vaccines and another
on plastics.
Future Plans
The year 2019 is envisaged as a pilot year
to learn more about how much preparation time is needed for each
podcast and the goal is to produce one a month in 2020. Each podcast
may be 45-75 minutes in length, said Bevan. Without knowing what to
expect in terms of the number of times the podcast is listened to,
Bevan told the Monitor in March that the first episode has had
approximately 700 listeners so far.
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