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Calendar of Events
3rd North American Congress of Epidemiology
June 21-24, 2011
Sheraton Centre Montreal
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Fellows Corner
Newly Appointed
Fellows - Spring 2011 * *
Trevor J Orchard John H Holmes Demosthenes B Panagiotakos |
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President's Letter
Faith (Faye) Davis
 There are signs of spring as I sit at a gate in Chicago's O'Hare Airport watching rain instead of snow, looking forward to the warmth of my destinations (Las Vegas - yes it's work) and the potential for the cherry blossoms being early in DC. Spring brings a time of hope. With the budget uncertainty at the federal and state levels affecting research and education activities seminal to our profession, I thought I would reflect on where my hope comes from this year.
I find hope in the expansion of our discipline into high school and undergraduate programs and the enthusiasm with which it is received. I find hope in the creative energy and enthusiasm of the associate members of the American College of Epidemiology and their positive contributions to the organization. I find hope in the College committee members who, in spite of their individual career pressures, find time to provide service to the discipline and make the College the vibrant organization that it is. I find hope in the organizational collaboration that the Congress of Epidemiology represents and the hard work and rewards of bringing groups within the discipline together. I find hope in the faculty and students at my institution who are excited about attending the Congress and sharing the research they have been advancing while learning about the work of others.
As difficult as the current fiscal and political climate is, the need is great for epidemiologists to use their knowledge and resources to inform public policy and programmatic decisions. Perhaps my biggest hope is that we too focus our research portfolios to address the highest priority questions in our areas of expertise, step out of our comfort zones to make our scientific questions ever more relevant, spend quality time mentoring the future generation of epidemiologists to do the same and, in so doing, let the future of epidemiology blossom with the spring. |
3rd North American Congress of Epidemiology - Biggest ever
Allen Wilcox
 The North American Congress occurs every five years, and this year's version has come roaring out of the gate. A record number of nearly 1200 abstracts were submitted to this summer's three-day meeting, to take place in Montreal starting Wednesday, June 22nd. The action begins the day before, when more than a dozen workshops will be presented by such stellar teachers as Norm Breslow, Duncan Thomas, and David Savitz. During the meeting itself there will be poster sessions, round-table discussions, dozens of spotlight sessions, and nearly 40 symposia on subjects ranging from health policy to ethics to methods to emerging areas such as disaster epidemiology and the microbiome. A great social event is planned in Montreal's Old City. Register on-line before April 20th for the cheapest rates (http://www.epicongress2011.org/index.html)
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| From the Board of Directors | |
Hello ACE Associate Members
Alberto Caban-Martinez and Joe Holbrook
Joe Holbrook with wife Kristinp?
Greetings from Miami and South Carolina! Since the start of the New Year, your associate membership leadership team has been diligently working on several College-related projects. First please welcome our new incoming Associate Director from South Carolina, Joe Holbrook. We are very excited he has accepted this position as he brings strong leadership to this new role. The enthusiastic response to our call for associate member liaisons to serve on the various ACE committees has been wonderful! We have appointed a majority of these liaisons and they now provide regular updates to the full associate membership regarding committee activities and opportunities for associate members.
Alberto Caban-Martinez with mother Elma and brothers Carlos and Arnaldo
We have drafted a program description for a national epidemiology journal club. Briefly we are proposing that this club will meet four times a year via conference call. At each journal club meeting, an ACE Fellow and an associate member will co-present a pre-selected influential epidemiology article If you are interested in taking a leadership role in coordinating the journal club meetings, please let us know.
We have been diligently working at supporting and coordinating various sessions for the North American Congress of Epidemiology and encourage you to review the Congress website to learn about the student / post-doctoral activities: http://www.epicongress2011.org/students/index.html Also, we are seeking an associate member to assist the leadership team with improving our existing promotional materials and welcome packet materials. We look forward to meeting with you at the Congress in Montreal, as well as the student reception scheduled for Thursday, June 23. As always, we welcome suggestions to improve the activities of the associate membership. Best Wishes on a successful spring! – Joe and Alberto
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Ethics Committee
Jim Enstrom, Chair and Tom Weiser, Vice Chair
This committee deals with the full range of ethical issues in epidemiology. Six subcommittees cover Ethics Bibliography, ACE Code of Ethics, Conflict of Interest, Peer Review Guidelines, Human Subjects Protection, and Collaboration with Foreign Counterparts ( http://www.acepidemiology.org/cttes/ethics/). There will be an Ethics Symposium, "Ethical Aspects of Small Epidemiologic Risks," at the upcoming North American Congress of Epidemiology. This Symposium will examine ethical issues associated with relative risks on the order of 1.2 that have been used to establish "causal" relationships and subsequent regulations based on these relationships. The key example will be the costly US EPA regulations resulting from the relationship between fine particulate air pollution and mortality. Diverse viewpoints will be presented and the emphasis will be on strong ethical standards in epidemiology.
Examples of recent subcommittee activity are the completion of new guidelines regarding conflict of interest in research and principles for ethical industry-academic collaboration. A new subcommittee was recently formed to address ethical issues regarding human subjects protection (HSP). Some proposed actions for this workgroup include: survey ACE members regarding HSP under current IRB structure, develop educational activities for ACE members, and create a position statement advocating that HSP be taught in graduate epidemiology programs.
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The (Professional) Social Network - Membership with ACE
Melinda Aldrich, Chair Membership Committee
 Being a member of ACE provides professional networking opportunities for epidemiologists that may not be realized elsewhere. These networking opportunities happen not only during our ACE continuing education workshops, Annual Meeting and policy workshop but also through committee participation. The Membership Committee, in particular, is looking for new committee members who are excited about helping the College grow. If you are interested in joining the Membership Committee and helping with membership efforts, please contact us.
The Membership Committee is responsible for tracking membership trends and increasing membership to the College. Together with staff at FirstPoint and the Admissions Committee, the Membership Committee has been working to streamline the process of tracking the demographics of the ACE membership. We have revised the membership application form and are now working on creative ways to increase our membership, retain current members, and increase
membership diversity.
Over 80% of our membership is comprised of Members and Fellows and we have a growing associate membership that has continued to increase since this membership category was introduced in 2001. The Membership Committee actively communicates with associate members to increase awareness of the College and to encourage potential associate members to join.
Please encourage your colleagues to join ACE and benefit from all that the College offers. Thank you for your help with growing our organization so that we may continue to advocate for epidemiologists and encourage professional development.
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The Epidemiology Congress is just around the corner. Send the kids to camp in June and make plans to meet your friends in Montreal. Don't forget to download an "app" for some French translations. À bientôt!
Carol Burns, Editor |
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