Robert S. Gordon, Jr. Lecture
Named in honor of Robert S. Gordon, Jr., former Assistant Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service and Special Assistant to former NIH Director James Wyngaarden, it is part of the Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series. Topics focus on clinical research and epidemiology. Speakers are selected by the NIH Office of Disease Prevention (ODP).
Epidemiology of Cognitive Aging: Why Observational Studies Still Matter
Dr. Yaffe's research focuses on the epidemiology of dementia and cognitive aging. As the principal investigator of multiple grants from the NIH, Department of Defense, and several foundations, she is a leading expert in the modifiable risk factors of dementia, and she has published over 500 peer-reviewed articles (H-index=130; recognized by Clarivate Analytics as one of the most highly cited researchers in her field). Dr.
POSTPONED – Epidemiology of cognitive aging: why observational studies still matter
Dr. Kristine Yaffe attended Yale University for her undergraduate degree, received her medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and completed residencies in Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the Scola Endowed Chair and Vice Chair and Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Epidemiology, and Director of the Center for Population Brain Health at the University of California, San Francisco. She is also the Chief of NeuroPsychiatry and Director of the Memory Evaluation Clinic at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
In scientific method we don’t just trust: or why replication has more value than discovery
Science is the best thing that has happened to Homo sapiens. It is important to apply the scientific method in ways that are the most efficient in leading to—and translating—important discoveries. However, this goal is not easy. There are many situations where research practices are applied in suboptimal ways, resulting in a reproducibility crisis in which trust in scientific findings is diminished. In his lecture, Dr. Ioannidis will discuss how we can improve the robustness, efficiency, and transparency of research practices.
Advancing population health: five propositions and a research agenda
Dr. Diez Roux is internationally known for her research on the social determinants of population health and the study of how neighborhoods affect health. Her work on neighborhood health effects has been highly influential in the policy debate on population health and its determinants. Her research areas include social epidemiology and health disparities, environmental health effects, urban health, psychosocial factors in health, cardiovascular disease epidemiology, and the use of multilevel methods.
The changing epidemiology of HPV and cervical cancer: from etiology, to validation of prevention methods, to dissemination
Over three decades of studies moving from etiology to preventive methods research to guidelines development, Dr. Schiffman has learned some broad lessons about the strengths and weaknesses of epidemiology that he will describe.
Biomedical research: increasing value, reducing waste
More than $200 billion is spent worldwide annually on biomedical research but estimates suggest as much as 85 percent may be wasted. What are the determinants of research waste, and is such a high figure justified? A series of five papers in The Lancet (January 8, 2014) introduced this topic in detail and is updated in this lecture. This presentation focuses on redundancy and duplication of research hypotheses, research designs that cannot reliably test hypotheses, publication bias, and irreproducibility. Solutions for reducing waste and increasing value are discussed.
Research directions for solving the obesity epidemic in high-risk populations
The prevalence of obesity is high in the United States, especially among children and adults in most U.S. racial/ethnic minority and low-income populations, compared to whites or those with higher incomes. This observation continues to beg for explanations that can point the way toward effective and durable solutions. Several potential explanations relate to the social, economic, and physical environments that influence eating and physical activity.
Epidemiology: Back to translation
Epidemiology was born of the need to discover the evidence necessary for the practice of public health. Early generations of epidemiologists produced data with the objective of translating their findings into public health action. However, the need for epidemiology to establish its scientific credentials, and the fact that subsequent generations of epidemiologists lacked a public health background, eventually resulted in an almost exclusive focus on etiology.
The page was last updated on Thursday, January 29, 2015 - 2:27pm
