IEA Blog

The XIth IEA-MENA Regional Scientific Meeting took place in Beirut, Lebanon, 21-23 February 2019, in association with the Lebanese Epidemiological Association.  Recent political changes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have made recent meetings difficult, but despite these unfavorable conditions, a number of epidemiologist practitioners gathered for the program.

The meeting offered attendees a full schedule of workshops, poster presentations and break-out sessions. Each of the eleven break-outs sessions focused on one particular topic with up to seven specific presentations on that topic. A full brogram can be seen below.

Many thanks to the organizing committee co-chaired by Salim Adib, IEA-MENARegional Councilor, and Mary Deeb, LEA. Other organizing committee members included Ibrahim Bou-Orm, Rachel Btaiche, Rasha Hamra, Ghinwa El Hayek, Aziza Khalidi and John Fayyed (in memorium).

AFENET Early Career Epidemiologists find value in IEA

Early Career Epidemiologists attending the African Field Epidemiologists Network (AFENET) Scientific Conference seemed to value IEA. The conference was held in Maputo, Mozambique, during 12-16 November. Representing IEA at the conference were IEA President Henrique Barros, IEA Africa Regional Councilor Akindele O. Adebiyi and members Armand Nkwescheu and Samuel Akinbosede.

More than 65 epidemiologists stopped by the IEA booth during the first day of the conference, and by the conference end, 41 early career epidemiologists had joined IEA.  During the meeting, IEA President was also able to visit with the minister of public health.

The next meeting in Africa will be the IEA-Africa Regional Conference, 14-17 April, 2019 in Maputo, Mozambique. Pictures from the AFENET meeting are featured below.

The Global Meeting of GOARN member institutions and networks was held at Centre International de Conférences Genève, Geneva Switzerland  on 5-7 December 2017 to discuss global priorities and challenges in epidemic alert and response, the strategic direction of GOARN, endorse important areas of work for operations and development, and contribute to concrete work plans and activities in the coming years. The meeting targeted decision makers and operation leads of partner agencies, and key stakeholders who can provide critical inputs and agree on participation in collaborative opportunities on behalf of their institution.

The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network – also referred to as GOARN – is a global technical partnership, established in 2000 by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a key mechanism to engage the resources of technical agencies beyond the United Nations for rapid identification, confirmation and response to major international public health emergencies.

GOARN currently comprises over 400 technical institutions and networks (and their members) across the globe.  These Partners include medical and surveillance initiatives, regional technical networks, networks of laboratories, United Nations organisations (e.g. UNICEF, UNHCR), the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (ICRC, IFRC), international humanitarian non-governmental organisations (e.g. Médecins Sans Frontières, International Rescue Committee, Epicentre), and national public health organisations. All have the ability to pool their resources rapidly to assist affected countries requiring support.

Dr. Henrique Barros, President, IEA and Dr. Vinod Srivastava, WHO Liaison, participated in this meeting on behalf of IEA.

 

The meeting of the World Congress of Epidemiology was held in Saitama, Japan, which started on August 19th, and there was a Business Meeting on August 20^th, 18:00-20:00, JST.  Click on the links below for an agenda, and a draft minutes from the previous Business Meeting, held in 2014, in Anchorage, Alaska.  The Meeting was open to all IEA Members.

2017 Business Meeting Agenda

Minutes (draft) from 2014 Business Meeting

President’s Report 2014-2017

Incoming President’s Plan

Treasurer’s Summary Report 2014-2017

Earlier this year two electronic elections were held so that IEA members could select representatives for the IEA Council for the triennium 2017-2020 (to start in August 2017).

The first election was held on March 1-21 and a total of 598 members voted. The second election, just to select the President-Elect, was held on May 1-14 and a total of 714 members voted.

Congratulations are to Chandra Mani Pandey, elected as President-Elect, Sandra Sulsky, elected as Secretary, and Yosikazu Nakamura, elected Treasurer, and to the successful Regional Representatives.

The IEA also thanks all the candidates who put themselves forward to work for IEA.

The full list of elected candidates is as follows:

• President-Elect – Chandra Mani Pandey
• Secretary – Sandra Sulsky
• Treasurer – Yosikazu Nakamura
• Africa Region Representative – Akindele Adebiyi
• Eastern Mediterranean Region Representative – Salim Adib
• European Region Representative – Patricia Kearney
• Latin American & Caribbean Region Representative – Karina Braga Ribeiro
• North America Region Representative – Eduardo Franco
• South East Asia Regional Representative – Umesh Kapil
• Western Pacific Region Representative – Manami Inoue

Thanks also to members of the Nominating Committee, including Mauricio Barreto, Lianne Parkin and David Wegman.

With best wishes,

Valerie Beral
IEA President

 

Practice of Epidemiology: Era of Emerging & Rising Old Epidemics

14 – 15 April, 2016

President Hotel, Bingu International Conference Centre, Lilongwe Malawi

• Conference Brochure
• Registration Guide
• Registration Form

 

Don’t miss this important information for the 2016 Epidemiology Congress of the Americas

Meeting registration and hotel accommodations are now live. You can access everything you need by clicking here

The abstract submission time is February 8, 2016 – March 7, 2016. View the call for abstracts here.

Award nominations are now open! The deadline to submit a nomination is January 11, 2016

Travel Scholarship

 

The applications to be part of the mentoring program have now closed. We encourage you to submit your application in any future rounds. Thank you for all the applications in this first round!

Dear IEA members

It is our pleasure to announce a mentoring scheme that has been prepared over the last few months by the Early Career Epidemiologist (ECE) Committee. As you probably already know, the ECE group was presented at the last World Congress of Epidemiology held in Edinburgh in 2011 and was very well received. One of the suggestions made by the Committee at that meeting, that was clearly supported by the attendees and the IEA Executive Council, was the creation of a mentoring scheme.

After some time, we have prepared the protocols of the mentoring scheme, and we would like to prepare a pilot test of the exchange. Hence, we need support from the IEA members. We need mentors and mentees to test the functioning of the scheme to finally decide how the exchange is going to work in the future.

We therefore kindly invite you to volunteer to be a mentor or a mentee in this new IEA experience. We are sure that it is going to be a good opportunity for mentees, but also for mentors to exchange knowledge and share opportunities.

We would like to point out that to be accepted as a mentee, you have to be a member of the IEA ECE group. Hence, we kindly invite you to email us if you want to be part of the group. We hope also to receive your petitions to be part of the pilot test –as mentors or mentees- in our email: earlycareerepidemiologists@gmail.com

Our best

The ECE Committee

 

The idea of organising the European Young Epidemiologists network within the IEA European Epidemiology Federation was presented on the occasion of the European Congress of Epidemiology held in Porto in September 2004 and was received with enthusiasm by young people from several countries. The realisation of this initiative was immediately supported by the IEA-EEF board. Since then, the president of the EYE has been a member of the European Federation board.

The IEA Executive Committee recently decided to create an international (worldwide) Early Career Epidemiologists group (ECE) within the IEA structure. A successful first meeting of ECE was held during the XIX IEA World Congress of Epidemiology (WCE) in Edinburgh (Scotland) in which the EYE has actively participated. As EYE is similar to ECE, it is going to be part of the worldwide group sharing the objectives and results. Currently, the ECE has a committee composed of seven emerging epidemiologists who are assisting the IEA Executive Committee with the creation of the ECE group. The current president of the EYE is the European delegate in the ECE committee.

The aims of this group are similar to those of the IEA, with a focus on identifying tools and opportunities to develop knowledge and careers in epidemiology for young people. The ECE has a variety of aims and purposes. It will aim to facilitate communication among ECE members engaged in the development of scientific knowledge through epidemiology throughout the world and it will promote the development and appropriate use of epidemiological methods in all fields of health through scientific meetings and workshops, publication of reports, and other activities. It’s initiatives will include the creation and maintenance of a network of colleagues in order to enhance scientific collaboration and the promulgate opportunities for funding, scholarships, exchanges, jobs, courses or events across the world. It will enhance communication and collaboration with other public health specialists (e.g. biostatisticians, nutritionists, environmental health professionals, and mental health professionals). Lastly, but not least, it will work towards these objectives without regard to race, religion, sex, political affiliation, country of origin or social grouping.

We think that this is an extraordinary opportunity to establish a global dialogue among early career professionals engaged in the field of epidemiology. Several activities are going to be announced in the near future like a mentoring scheme, and facilities to attend conferences, among others.