June 2022 - The Epidemiology Monitor

A monthly update covering people, events, research, and key developments

Who Are You? As the baton is passed to me, the new Editor-in-Chief of the EpiMonitor newsletter, this is a great time to reassess the needs of this community.

The first question I have for you is…

Who are you? Yes, I know you’re an epidemiologist, but this is a broad field and I would love to get a sense of the newsletter audience more specifically.

Where do you work? What is your training? I would also love to hear your thoughts about this newsletter (How often do you actually read it? What are future topics of interest?) and your perception of the needs of our broader field (How we can build a stronger epi community?). This will help me understand how to strengthen this

newsletter to ensure emails landing in your inbox are relevant, helpful, and important to you and this field.

Please take a brief survey by following the link HERE (https://bit.ly/3QSXMB5) As epidemiologists, you know response rates are important for external validity! I appreciate you taking the time so we can get a generalizable understanding of this audience and how to strengthen our community. I’ll be sure to share the survey results next month!

ThanksKatelyn

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COVID-19 Now Vaccine Preventable -5Notes On People -8Event Calendar -10Marketplace This Month

SER Conference 2022 After two long years, epidemiologists across the world grabbed their masks and flew to the Windy City of Chicago for the Society for Epidemiological Research (SER) 2022 conference. Some flights were delayed because of a tornados and bad weather.

Unfortunately, we are also in the middle of a COVID19 surge, so many June 2022

In This Issue

had to cancel last minute due to inconvenient infections or the fact that they were high risk for severe disease.

Surprisingly, there wasn’t a hybrid option. But, ultimately, a couple hundred epidemiologists from across the globe made it.

- SER cont'd on page 2 •

Volume Forty Three •

Number Six

-SER cont'd from page 1 The Epidemiology Monitor ISSN (0744-0898) is published monthly

Editorial Contributors Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH Editor and Publisher

Operations Christopher Jetelina Operations Manager

There’s no doubt this year’s conference was different than previous ones. Most obviously, we are still in the middle of a pandemic. Everyone was wearing masks. Everyone was taking daily antigen tests. And the rooms were freezing (Maybe this isn’t different than previous years, but was a good sign of good ventilation!). COVID19 precautions were planned impeccably

well, and I wish every conference was planned by epidemiologists during a pandemic. Dr. Whitney Robinson, epidemiologist at Duke, brought a CO2 monitor to the plenary session. It was packed! Standing room only and people were seated shoulder to shoulder. However, CO2 levels remained low. See her readings and commentary below:

This was also the first in-person conference since 2019. Many old friends embraced. Many new virtual friends met face-to-face for the first time. The reunions and social interactions were incredibly refreshing. However, below the surface it was obvious how hard the past 2.5 years have been for our field.

We are exhausted. We are burnt out.

And many are frustrated, traumatized, and “checked out” to preserve wellness and sanity. Tears were exchanged while debriefing on sacrifices we’ve taken.

Deep conversations also ensued: How do we build institutional trust? How do we fight misinformation? How do we strengthen our data systems in this fragmented system? How do we prepare for the next wave and next pandemic? These

are important and imperative questions with incredibly difficult and complex answers.

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Scientifically it was refreshing to see that the majority of sessions and posters were not focused on COVID-19. This only highlighted that our response to SARS-CoV-2 was an all hands-on-deck response. We responded to the pandemic while concurrently keeping up with our work in other important topics of public health. Strolling the poster sessions, I was particularly excited to see that a few brave souls started implementing #betterposters.

This is a design that was introduced - SER cont'd on page 4

COVID-19 Is Now A Vaccine-Preventable Disease Big news this month was that the FDA and CDC authorized COVID-19 vaccines for children under 5 years old.

This is the last group in line to receive emergency use authorization. For us parents with kids under 5, it’s been a long time coming. For us epidemiologists and public health officials, this is a monumental moment as it marks COVID-19 has now a vaccine-preventable disease (VPD) for all age groups.

Some public members, though, have questioned this framing. How is this a vaccine-preventable disease if the vaccinated can still get infected and die?

According to the CDC, VPD can be categorized into three buckets: Eradication, elimination, or control. 

Eradication is defined as the worldwide absence of a specific disease-causing agent in nature.

Most famously this includes smallpox. We are working very hard to eradicate polio through vaccination as well.



Elimination can be two things: 1) Elimination of transmission leading to the absence of a disease or infection in a defined geographic area. Examples of this is measles or rubella.

2) Elimination as a public health problem due to an in intensive intervention with a specific disease reduction target. Examples include Hepatitis B, Rabies, or the HPV vaccine



Control means the reduction of disease and death to low levels locally. This is where the COVID19 vaccine lands as well as vaccines for influenza, and hepatitis A.

COVID-19 vaccines aren’t perfect. No vaccines are. And, public health officials should not overpromise. But they are the strongest layer of protection against severe disease.

One of public health’s biggest challenges is that when it works, it’s largely invisible. This isn’t the case in other fields. For example, in medicine you can see the impact of a surgery. In the drug industry you can see the immediate effect of a prescription. In public health, we don’t see what we prevented. The Commonwealth Fund published a brief in which they analyzed the extent to which the vaccine program in the United States averted deaths and hospitalizations since its rollout. Their main conclusion was as follows:

“...this is a monumental moment..."

“In the absence of a vaccination program, there would have been approximately 1.1 million additional COVID-19 deaths and more than 10.3 million additional COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. by November 2021.”

This is also blaringly apparent worldwide. As the Lancet Infectious Diseases just published, in the first year of COVID19 vaccinations, 14-20 million deaths were prevented across 185 countries. Another 600,000 lives would have been saved if the 40% vaccination coverage target set by WHO was met by each country at the end of 2021.

COVID19 is now a VPD and will continue to save lives. This is a public health success worth celebrating. Now we have to do the groundwork--equip our trusted messengers and elevate our grassroots networks to get evidencebased information out to the masses.

Our work is far from done. ■

“One of public health's biggest challenges is that when it works, it's largely invisible."

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-SER cont'd from page 2

" ... new design is to convey the science and new insights more efficiently..."

in 2019 by Mike Morrison, a Ph.D. candidate in organizational psychology at Michigan State University. The purpose of the new design is to convey the science and new insights more efficiently for people walking in rows and rows of giant boards. Read more

about the #betterposter campaign here.

In all, this scientific session was a success! And, EpiMonitor was well represented. We are already looking forward to next year!

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Notes on People Do you have news about yourself, a colleague, or a student?

Please help The Epidemiology Monitor keep the community informed by sending relevant news to us at this address for inclusion in our next issue. people@epimonitor.net

Awarded: Lauren Anne Wise won the SER 2022 Noel Weiss and Tom Koepsell Excellence in Education Award. Dr. Wise is a Professor of Epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health and her research involves the study of benign gynecologic conditions, delayed conception, and adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Awarded: Stephen Cole won the SER 2022 Marshall Joffe Epidemiologic Method Research Award. Dr. Cole is a Professor of Epidemiology at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and focuses on study designs and analyses that accurately estimate parameters of central interest to health scientists.

Awarded: Maya Mathur won the SER 2022 Brian MacMahon Early Career Epidemiologist Award. Dr. Mathur is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Assistant Professor at Stanford University’s Quantitative Sciences Unit.

Awarded: Whitney Robinson received the Carol J Rowland Hogue Outstanding Mid-Career Achievement Award. Dr. Robinson is an instructors in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Core Faculty Member at the Center for Health Policy at Duke University. She explores why rates of health and disease vary across groups.

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Notes on People Do you have news about yourself, a colleague, or a student?

Please help The Epidemiology Monitor keep the community informed by sending relevant news to us at this address for inclusion in our next issue. people@epimonitor.net

Awarded: Beate Ritz was awarded the SER 2022 Kenneth Rothman Career Accomplishment Award. Dr. Ritz is a Professor of Epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the health effects of occupational and environmental toxins such as pesticides, ionizing radiation, and air pollution on chronic diseases including neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders (Parkinson's disease, autism cognition), cancers, and adverse birth outcomes and asthma.

Awarded: Saad Omer was recently appointed the Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) at the Yale School of Medicine.

Died: Dr. Gerardo Heiss, MD PhD, the W.R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor at UNC, passed away peacefully on Saturday, June 11, in Chapel Hill. He was internationally known for his work in noninvasive studies of subclinical atherosclerosis, socioeconomic status over the life course, women’s health, minority health, modifiable predictors of cardiovascular disease outcomes and applications of electronic health records in population research. Read more here.

Awarded: Victoria Kamilar and Amelia Wallace, two students at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, won the 2022 Dorothy and Arthur Samet Student Support Fund in Epidemiology. This award recognizes student accomplishments in respect to the enrichment of the community.

Amelia Wallace

Victoria Kamilar

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Notes on People Do you have news about yourself, a colleague, or a student?

Please help The Epidemiology Monitor keep the community informed by sending relevant news to us at this address for inclusion in our next issue. people@epimonitor.net

Awarded: Jill M. Norris, MPH, PhD was the recipient of the 2022 Kelly West Award for Outstanding Achievement in Epidemiology from the American Diabetes Association. This award recognizes significant contributions to the field of diabetes epidemiology. She delivered a lecture on June 5 entitled, Type 1 Diabetes and Diet: Moving from Epidemiology to Opportunities for Precision Prevention. She is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology in the Colorado School of Public Health.

Your Ad Should Be Here Do you have a job, course, conference, book or other resource of interest to the epidemiology community? Advertise with The Epidemiology Monitor and reach 35,000 epidemiologists, biostatisticians, and public health professionals monthly.

Advertising opportunities exist in this digital publication, on our website and Facebook page, and in our Epi-Gram emails.

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Near Term Epidemiology Event Calendar Every December The Epidemiology Monitor dedicates that issue to a calendar of events for the upcoming year. However that often means we don't have full information for events later in the upcoming year. Thus an online copy exists on our website that is updated regularly.

To view the full year please go to: http://www.epimonitor.net/Events The events that we are aware of for the next two months follow below.

July 2022 July 4-15 https://bit.ly/2Kxw9QD Short Course / Epidemiological Evaluation of Vaccines: Efficacy, Safety and Policy / London School of Hygiene & Tropical Health / London, England July 6-8 http://bit.ly/34mL0Ew Conference / European Dermato-Epi Forum / European Dermato-Epidemiology Network (EDEN) / Rotterdam, The Netherlands July 11-15 https://bit.ly/3GK6I61 Short Course / Genetic Epidemiology / University of Bristol / Bristol, England July 11-22 http://bit.ly/3mOlFtn Summer Program / 8th Annual Summer Institute in Statistics for Big Data (SISBID) / University of Washington / Seattle, WA July 11-27 https://bit.ly/2RWT7iZ Summer Program / 13th Annual Summer Institute in Statistics and Modeling in Infectious Diseases (SISMID) / University of Washington / Seattle, WA July 11-29 http://bit.ly/2LSdUmP Summer Program / 8th Annual Summer Institute in Statistics for Clinical & Epidemiological Research (SISCER) / University of Washington / Seattle, WA July 11-29 https://bit.ly/2QnqkHv Summer Program / 56th Summer Session in Epidemiology / University of Michigan / Ann Arbor, MI July 19-22 https://bit.ly/3GC1mtG Conference / NACCHO 360 Conference / NACCHO (National Association of County and City Health Offices) / Atlanta, GA July 25-29 http://bit.ly/38Agng0 Summer Program / 31st International Summer School of Epidemiology at Ulm University / Ulm University /Ulm, Germany July 28-29 http://bit.ly/356q2In Conference / 7th International Conference on Public Health (ICOPH 2022) / Multiple / VIRTUAL

August 2022 August 6-11 https://bit.ly/34bPNIB Conference / JSM 2021 (Joint Statistics Meeting) / American Statistical Association / Washington, DC

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Near Term Epidemiology Event Calendar, con't August 7-12 https://bit.ly/31QsDKc Conference / 16th International Symposium of Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics (ISVEE 16) / Multiple / Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada August 9-13 https://bit.ly/3pVSNDh Short Course / Principles of Research in Medicine and Epidemiology / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands August 9-13 https://bit.ly/3pYjt6k Short Course / Principles of Genetic Epidemiology / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands August 9-13 https://bit.ly/3pWfN4V Short Course / Advances in Clinical Epidemiology / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands August 16-20 https://bit.ly/327ATVW Short Course / History of Epidemiologic Ideas / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands August 16-20 https://bit.ly/3ILLQx4 Short Course / Causal Inference / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands August 23-27 https://bit.ly/3pV8Ml0 Short Course / Social Epidemiology / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands August 23-27 https://bit.ly/3pUSXus Short Course / Practice of Epidemiologic Analysis / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands August 23-27 https://bit.ly/3E1IH8Y Short Course / Data Science in Epidemiology / Erasmus MC / Rotterdam, The Netherlands August 24-28 https://bit.ly/3mXQ4qe Conference / ISPE Annual Conference / International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology / Copenhagen, Denmark

Your Ad Should Be Here Do you have a job, course, conference, book or other resource of interest to the epidemiology community? Advertise with The Epidemiology Monitor and reach 35,000 epidemiologists, biostatisticians, and public health professionals monthly.

Advertising opportunities exist in this digital publication, on our website and Facebook page, and in our Epi-Gram emails.

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Multiple Open Rank Faculty Positions The Department of Epidemiology and Prevention the Wake Forest University School of Medicine is experiencing a period of tremendous growth and opportunity. We are actively recruiting multiple faculty at all ranks who are tenured or tenure-eligible to support this growth. Our current focus is recruitment of epidemiologists and pharmacoepidemiologists with methodologic research interests in leveraging real world data sources, including electronic health record data, administrative/claims data, and pragmatic trials.

Department of Epidemiology and Prevention Wake Forest’s Department of Epidemiology and Prevention is one of four departments comprising the Division of Public Health Sciences (others are Biostatistics and Data Science, Implementation Science, and Social Sciences and Health Policy).

Established in 1989, Public Health Sciences consistently ranks in the top 10 for National Institutes of Health funding among national academic medical center peer groups. In the past decade alone, the Division generated nearly $500 million of Wake Forest University School of Medicine’s research funding.

Faculty within the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention often share joint appointments within clinical departments, enhancing opportunity for clinical epidemiologic studies that directly inform patient care. Newly hired faculty can affiliate with one or more of our nationally-recognized centers including, among others: Center for Healthcare Innovation, Center for Biomedical Informatics, The Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity, Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center, Center for Addiction Research, Center for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, Center for Vaccines at the Extremes of Aging, the Sticht Center for Healthy Aging and Alzheimer’s Prevention, and the Program for Health Services Research. We are deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects, such as recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce, building an inclusive environment, and promoting health equity through research and influencing policy. Faculty within the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention have extensive experience with large, multicenter studies and collaborate with clinicians and basic scientists from a variety of other departments within the health system, as well as institutions and communities across the U.S. and abroad.

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist In October 2020, Wake Forest Baptist Health and Atrium Health officially joined together as a single enterprise. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Atrium Health is an integrated, not-for-profit healthcare system. Atrium Health is providing $3.4 billion for planned investments in our health system and the communities we serve; $600 million alone is focused on advancing Wake Forest’s academic mission. The Wake Forest University School of Medicine is the academic core of Atrium Health and is building a second campus in Charlotte, North Carolina. The current positions may reside in either Winston-Salem or Charlotte, North Carolina. The new strategic partnership between Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Atrium Health has created an unparalleled opportunity for epidemiological research in a diverse catchment area of over 7 million residents across 4 states in the Southeastern U.S. Qualifications ♦ ♦ ♦

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Desire and ability to work collaboratively across disciplines Active research portfolio in pharmacoepidemiology, clinical epidemiology, pragmatic trials, or other closely-related area of focus, commensurate with rank Evidence of or strong potential for obtaining extramural research funding, with successful applicants at the level of Assistant Professor demonstrating an emerging record and those at the level of Associate Professor or Professor demonstrating an established record of obtaining extramural funding Exceptional methodological skills relevant to the design, implementation and analyses of RWE data sources, including electronic health record data, administrative/claims data, and pragmatic trials Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion Commitment to teaching and mentoring graduate, post-graduate, junior faculty, and/or clinicians Advanced degree (e.g., PhD, MD, PharmD), with PhD in epidemiology preferred

Interested candidates may submit their curriculum vitae and cover letter to Bridgette Harris Blackwell (bblackwe@wakehealth.edu) and Elizabeth Jensen, MPH PhD (ejensen@wakehealth.edu). Applicants whose research experience and interests are determined to align with the strategic goals for growth of the Department will be offered the opportunity to provide a Research Statement, Statement of Teaching Philosophy (optional) and sample publication(s).

Multiple faculty appointments are anticipated and the position will remain open until all anticipated positions are filled.

Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Health is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer with a strong commitment to achieving diversity among its faculty and staff.

Department Head - Health Promotion & Behavior The College of Public Health at the University of Georgia, pursuant to its mission and values (https://publichealth.uga.edu/about/), invites applications for Department Head of Health Promotion and Behavior (HPB) (https://publichealth.uga.edu/departments/health-promotion-behavior/) to begin in 2023. This tenure-track (or tenured) position is an academic 9-month appointment. The successful candidate will have credentials at the Associate or Full Professor level and will assume a leadership role in the development and growth of the department and expansion of research, instruction, and outreach in health promotion and behavior. Rank and tenure status on appointment will be based on the application and promotion and tenure guidelines Minimum Qualifications and Additional Requirements: Applicants must have an advanced degree (PhD, DrPH, or other relevant doctoral degree) in health promotion and behavior or a related discipline. Requirements for each rank are outlined in the University’s Appointment, Promotion and Tenure Guidelines and the College of Public Health's Promotion and Tenure Guidelines. To be eligible for tenure upon appointment, candidates must be appointed as an Associate or Full Professor, have been tenured at a prior institution, and bring a demonstrably national reputation to the institution. Candidates must be approved for tenure upon appointment before hire.

Relevant/Preferred Experience, Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: We seek external applicants with an established track record of administrative and leadership skills, substantive external research funding, and an established record of accomplishment in public health research and instruction.

We are especially interested in candidates who will advance the multidisciplinary research of the College and bring innovative perspectives to the instruction and research in health promotion and behavior. There are currently 12 Research Working Groups in the College of Public Health that represent the main research areas of interest, including health disparities, gerontology, telehealth, program and economic evaluation among others.

The University of Georgia is consistently ranked among the top 20 public universities in U.S. News & World Report and is recognized as a research intensive and community engaged institution by the Carnegie Foundation. UGA employs approximately 2,000 full-time instructional faculty and more than 7,500 staff. The University’s enrollment exceeds 40,000 students, including over 30,000 undergraduates and approximately 10,000 graduate and professional students. Academic programs reside in 18 schools and colleges, as well as a medical partnership with Augusta University housed on the UGA Health Sciences Campus in Athens. For more information about the University of Georgia, please refer to https://www.uga.edu/. UGA is located in Athens, Georgia, 65 miles northeast of Atlanta. Athens offers a rich cultural and diverse environment connected with the university and is perennially identified as one of America’s most livable cities with a low cost of living. (http://www.visitathensga.com/).

Applications: Applicant screening will begin immediately. Candidates are encouraged to submit their materials by Sunday, August 7, 2022; however, screening will continue until the position is filled. The application packet should include a cover letter detailing how the applicant’s credentials and experience meet the needs, responsibilities, and qualifications stated above; a current CV; and contact information for three references (who will not be contacted without further correspondence with the applicant).

All applicants must apply online at https://www.ugajobsearch.com. Please see the job posting at: https://www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/261682 To request a descriptive Opportunity Profile for this position, provide a nomination, or seek additional information, please contact Anjanette Russell, Primary Consultant with the UGA Search Group, at adsmith@uga.edu or 770596-7596. Letters of recommendation or a simple nomination should include the name and contact information for the nominee.

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