Short Course on Regression and Causal Modelling in Epidemiology, conducted by Professor Neil Pearce, Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Cost: $200 (includes morning and afternoon tea).

This course is an intermediate/advanced level course in the use of regression for effect estimation and causal modelling in epidemiology. The morning session will cover the basic principles of multiple regression analysis including assessment of confounding and multicollinearity, advanced methods for controlling multiple confounders, and the principles of assessment of effect measure modification. The afternoon session will cover more advanced topics including Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs), advanced methods for causal inference, and Bayesian methods. This session will also include an opportunity to discuss particular modelling issues arising from the research of the course participants.  Participants will be required to have completed an introductory course in epidemiology and/or biostatistics or have equivalent research experience.

12 December 2013, Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University, Wellington.

Short Course on Survey Methods, conducted by Professor David Steel, Director, National Institute for Applied Statistics Research Australia

University of Wollongong and Professor Steve Haslett, Professor of Statistics, Massey University.  Cost: $450 (includes morning and afternoon tea)

The course covers the key steps in developing and conducting a survey. Topics covered include: determining objectives, specifying population of interest, identifying the sampling frame, determining precision required, deciding type of investigation needed, determining collection method, developing and testing the collection instrument, and specifying the sampling method. It will also consider the major sources of errors in a survey.

12-13 November 2013, Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University, Wellington.

For registration details please contact either:

Katharine Haddock – K.Haddock{@}massey.ac.nz or

Associate Professor Barry Borman -This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Thursday 14^th – Friday 15^th November 2013
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University
Alfred Centre, 99 Commercial Road, Melbourne, Vic

Two Day Workshop

 Presented by

Dr Ian White
MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge, UK

In addition to adhering to the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) guidelines, leading medical journals are now requesting that researchers explain how missing data were handled in the statistical analyses and provide a justification for the statistical approach chosen. The New England Journal of Medicine and the British Medical Journal have recently published guidance on approaches to missing data and advised against simple methods such as last observation carried forward, or baseline carried forward, in favour of methods based on a statistical model, for example multiple imputation, or estimating-equation methods.

This highly regarded course, which has been delivered at the University of Cambridge over the past several years, will equip analysts with the necessary practical skills to handle missing data in their analyses, and in particular to move beyond the use of complete-case analysis and last observation carried forward analysis. The course will focus on trials with quantitative outcomes, and also consider binary outcomes but not time-to-event outcomes and is targeted towards statisticians and researchers with experience performing statistical analysis of clinical trials with missing outcome data.

Professor Ian White is an international leader in clinical trials methodology and an outstanding teacher. He is currently a Programme Leader at the MRC (Medical Research Council) Biostatistics Unit at the University of Cambridge, his main biostatistics research areas are statistical methods for handling missing data and heterogeneity in meta-analyses.

Cost is $800 per registration or $700 for a student registration.

Full details and registration form can be found at http://www.vicbiostat.org.au/handling-missing-outcome-data-randomised-trials

Registration opens for the 31 courses on offer at the 2014 Public Health Summer School

Develop your skills and knowledge at the largest Public Health Summer School in the Southern Hemisphere. Hosted by the University of Otago in Wellington, NZ, this popular event offers 1-3 day courses and will take place from 3rd-21st February, 2014.

Among the wide variety of courses on critical areas of public health are many particularly relevant to those interested in Epidemiology.

Our programme offers a number of courses at an introductory level including courses on:

Epidemiology, STATA, Biostatistics, R and SAS

Or more advanced courses such as Intermediate Biostatistics and Advanced Epidemiology

We also offer a number of special interest topics such as:

Big Food, Health in all policies and What the Tobacco Endgame means for young adults.

For a summary of all courses available, please view the attached flyer.

To register or find out more please visit our website www.otago.ac.nz/uowsummerschool

Remember to act quickly to take advantage of the 25% early bird discount.

2014 Public Health Summer School

When:                  3-21 February, 2014

Course length:  1-3 days

Where:                University of Otago campus in Wellington, New Zealand

For further information, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call +64 4 8061807

Research by clinicians and other health professionals is essential to sustain high quality health care and to ensure evidence-based policy and programs. Research Methods in Health is designed for busy practitioners, research nurses, research assistants and postgraduates commencing research projects. The course has practical objectives. Experienced researchers will work with you to achieve efficient literature searches, clear and answerable research questions and ethics review. You will develop skills in the design, conduct and analysis of a study, and presentation of outcomes and publication in health science journals.

This is a five day intensive short course developed and delivered by experienced researchers in medicine, nursing, public health and related fields.  The course will be ideal for clinicians and health practitioners to develop competencies in research and epidemiology to apply in their own setting to lead a study as a principal or co-investigator.

Commencing Monday February 10 through to Friday February 14 2014 at QUT, Kelvin Grove Campus.

Cost is $1,535 for workshop module only or $2047.00 for students who enrol in both workshop and assessment modules.

Early bird discount enrol and pay before December 20, 2013 and save 10%.

Further details can be found in the attached flyer or contact Dr Kaeleen Dingle at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Closing Date: 7^th February, 2014

pdf  Research Methods in Health Flyer 2014 (205.72 kB)

Register now for Population Health Short Courses at the Australian National University in Canberra in 2014: http://nceph.anu.edu.au/education/short-courses

Hosted by the National Centre for Epidemiology & Population Health (NCEPH), these 4-day short courses are presented by an experienced faculty of public health academics and expert practitioners in the field. Several are based on the award-winning Master of Applied Epidemiology curriculum, run by NCEPH since 1991. These courses are designed for people who already work in the field of population health and who want to refresh their public health knowledge and skills or those who may be considering a career in population health or related research.

Public Health Surveillance 25-28 February

Ever wondered how Australia monitors important diseases? Participants in this course will learn about surveillance of both infectious and non-infectious disease, how a disease becomes notifiable and how to set up and evaluate a surveillance system.

Register now for Population Health Short Courses at the Australian National University in Canberra in 2014: http://nceph.anu.edu.au/education/short-courses

Hosted by the National Centre for Epidemiology & Population Health (NCEPH), these 4-day short courses are presented by an experienced faculty of public health academics and expert practitioners in the field. Several are based on the award-winning Master of Applied Epidemiology curriculum, run by NCEPH since 1991. These courses are designed for people who already work in the field of population health and who want to refresh their public health knowledge and skills or those who may be considering a career in population health or related research.

Outbreak Investigation 3-6 March

This course is designed to equip participants with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills required to undertake investigation and control of outbreaks in the field. The emphasis will be on applying knowledge and concepts to scenarios based on real-life outbreaks.

The Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health (ARCPOH), School of Dentistry, is hosting the 6th International Meeting on Methodological Issues in Oral Health Research from 31 March to 4 April, 2014.

The Conference theme “Addressing the complexities in analysing oral health data”, will facilitate the discussion of state of the art methodologies on the design, conduct and analysis of oral health research, in particular but not restricted to network-meta-analysis, clinical and population studies.

Registrations are now open, we look forward to seeing you there!

When: Conference: 1-3rd April 2014
Pre-conference workshop: 31 March 2014
Post-conference workshop: 4 April 2014

Where: The National Wine Centre Cnr of Botanic and Hackney Roads The University of Adelaide SA 5000 AUSTRALIA

Visit our website www.adelaide.edu.au/dentalbiostat/ for further information.

Register now for Population Health Short Courses at the Australian National University in Canberra in 2014: http://nceph.anu.edu.au/education/short-courses

Hosted by the National Centre for Epidemiology & Population Health (NCEPH), these 4-day short courses are presented by an experienced faculty of public health academics and expert practitioners in the field. Several are based on the award-winning Master of Applied Epidemiology curriculum, run by NCEPH since 1991. These courses are designed for people who already work in the field of population health and who want to refresh their public health knowledge and skills or those who may be considering a career in population health or related research.

Biostatistics in Population Health 8-11 April

This course provides an introduction to the basic principles of biostatistics. There is no need to have experience with biostatistics (or any statistical software package); the material is aimed at anyone who would like to be able to read and interpret the biostatistical content in the medical and public health literature.

Challenging Ideas Seminar Series hosted by Bureau of Health Information

Please join us for the Bureau’s first ever Challenging Ideas Seminar Series presentation by Cathy Schoen, Senior Vice President of
The Commonwealth Fund.

Registration is open to all interested parties.

Topic: Re-Engineering Care for 21st Century High Performance Health Systems:
Potential to Improve and Opportunities to Learn, Insights from Cross-National Experiences

Date: Thursday, 19 June 2014

Time: 10.30am morning tea followed by 11.00am presentation
          The presentation, including time for questions, will conclude at 12pm

Location: Civic Pavilion
                The Concourse
                409 Victoria Av, Chatswood

Outline: In Australia for a short time, Cathy will use results from the Commonwealth Fund’s annual International Health Policy surveys plus US examples to illustrate the potential to re-design health care in the 21st century with a focus on primary care linked to a continuum of care. She will share insights gleaned from the Commonwealth Fund’s three most recent international surveys—general population (2013), primary care doctors (2012), and adults with complex medical conditions (2011)—that compare Australia with 10 other countries. Cathy will also highlight examples of care system innovation and improvement.

Registration: Please register for the event through this link.

Further information

Register now for Population Health Short Courses at the Australian National University in Canberra in 2014: http://nceph.anu.edu.au/education/short-courses

Hosted by the National Centre for Epidemiology & Population Health (NCEPH), these 4-day short courses are presented by an experienced faculty of public health academics and expert practitioners in the field. Several are based on the award-winning Master of Applied Epidemiology curriculum, run by NCEPH since 1991. These courses are designed for people who already work in the field of population health and who want to refresh their public health knowledge and skills or those who may be considering a career in population health or related research.

Climate, Environment and health 23-26 June

This intensive short course will provide insights into the key health issues related to climate and environmental change. The course has a strong focus on the impacts of climate change and associated health risks for Australia and the South Pacific region.

Australian Statistical Conference in conjunction with the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Annual Meeting (ASC-IMS 2014) 7 – 10 July 2014 Sydney, Australia

The Conference will be one of the premier events in 2014 bringing together hundreds of mathematicians and statisticians from across the globe. For more information please visit: www.asc-ims2014.com

This is an intensive 2-day course on the practice of analysing longitudinal (repeated measures) data from randomised trials and cohort/panel studies in the health/medical arena. The course will cover analysis and interpretation of data/results from such studies for quantitative, binary and count response variables. Emphasis is on model specification, use of statistical software (primarily SAS, but also SPSS and Stata) to fit models and get results, and interpretation of results. The theoretical basis for models and approaches is mentioned as needed.

The principal instructor is Professor Matthew Knuiman. Professor Knuiman is a biostatistician/epidemiologist whose primary training is in the field of statistics. Most of his 30+ year career has involved conducting population health and  health services research, and teaching statistical methods in the medical and health science field.

This course is designed for health professionals and researchers interested in understanding the issues and modern approaches to analysis of longitudinal data and in updating and upgrading their quantitative skills to include analyses of longitudinal data.

The course assumes a working knowledge of statistical concepts and familiarity with (multiple) regression methods (eg linear and logistic regression) for independent data (eg from cross-sectional studies) and familiarity with at least one of SAS, SPSS or Stata for regression analyses. No calculus or matrix algebra is assumed but participants should be familiar with algebraic specification of model equations. The course will cover analysis and interpretation of data/results from randomised trials and cohort/panel studies for quantitative, binary and count response variables. Emphasis is on model specification, use of statistical software (primarily SAS, but also SPSS and Stata) to fit models and get results, and interpretation of results.

• $700 (early bird rate) / $850 (after 30 June 2014)
  Fee includes morning and afternoon teas and a light lunch
  Enrol at www.sph.uwa.edu.au/courses/winter-spring-summerschool

Sander Greenland

Professor of Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public Health
Professor of Statistics, UCLA College of Letters and Science

Professor Sander Greenland is one of the most prolific and influential authors on epidemiological methods of the past 2-3 decades, including a co-author (with K Rothman) of the widely prescribed textbook ‘Modern Epidemiology’ and a first author of 177 articles in epidemiology and biostatistics journals.

Background: Bayesian methods continue to become more popular in statistical modelling, but are not covered in most basic teaching. This lag may in part be due to common misconceptions (encouraged by most expositions) that Bayesian methods are conceptually distinct from frequentist methods and require special software. In fact, Bayesian methods are examples of penalized ("shrinkage") estimation and thus are perfectly acceptable frequentist methods; conversely, common frequentist methods are special types of Bayesian methods in which prior distributions are noninformative (so penalties are either zero or infinite). This short course will explain and illustrate the relationship between the two perspectives with real examples from cancer epidemiology, and will show how penalization allows one to deal with a number of common problems that render ordinary statistical methods misleading for epidemiological research.

Thursday 24 July

On day 1, Bayesian and penalized regression methods will be introduced, as an alternative to standard frequentist approaches, for analysing data from observational studies in health and social sciences. How to include prior information or suitable shrinkage, without requiring specialist software (such as WinBUGs), will be demonstrated, with SAS and Stata coding provided in the computer practicals.

Friday 25 July

On day 2, the methods will be extended for more general regression modelling, including hierarchical (multilevel) and bias modelling. These methods provide an alternative to the parsimony-oriented approaches of standard regression analyses. In particular, they replace arbitrary variable-selection criteria by penalized estimation, which has many desirable frequentist properties and which facilitates realistic use of vague but important prior information. The methods facilitate handling problems of sparse data, multiple comparisons, weight stabilization, and sensitivity analysis with multiple bias sources.

Computing: Bring your own laptop with Stata or SAS installed.

Target audience: The course is designed for researchers with previous formal training in epidemiology and multivariable regression methods. During computing sessions the participants will be provided with examples of computer code, solutions and assistance from tutors in Stata and SAS only.

Lunch and morning/afternoon tea provided.

Registration: A registration form is available from www.influenzacentre.org/shortcourse 

Course enquiries: Sheena Sullivan  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sponsored by WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, VIDRL;

Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health,

The University of Melbourne; and the Victorian Centre for Biostatistics

The Centre for Air quality and health Research and evaluation (CAR) in collaboration with the University of Queensland’s School of Population Health, will be running a course on the R statistical language aimed at those with an interest in air pollution epidemiology. The course will run over two days on Thursday 24^th and Friday 25^th July at the Herston Campus of the University of Queensland, in Brisbane. Thursday is aimed at beginners new to, or with little experience in R, and will cover installation, packages, loading, saving and manipulating data, simple linear regression, and producing graphics for publication. Friday is more detailed and will cover time series, case-crossover and Bayesian analyses as applied to air pollution epidemiology. Presenters are Dr Peter Baker (Queensland Clinical Trials and Biostatistics Centre), Dr Yuming Guo, (University of Queensland) and Dr Sam Clifford (Queensland University of Technology).

For more information or to register see the CAR website, car-cre.org.au, or contact Kirsten Jakobsen on car @sydney.edu.au.

The Advanced Epidemiology Short Course is a 4 day course held in Sydney, Australia from 28-31 July 2014, taught by Professor Tony Blakely (University of Otago) and Professor John Lynch (University of Adelaide).

The course includes a comprehensive overview of systematic error, an introduction to bias analysis methods to correct for systematic error in epidemiological studies, quantitative bias analysis exercises, and other selected topics.

For more information and to register please visit this website:   http://www.otago.ac.nz/wellington/advancedepicourse

The one-day course ‘Code wrangling for epidemiologists: better programming for big, complex data’ will be held on Friday, 1 August 2014 at the Aerial UTS Function Centre, Sydney.

Presenters: Tim Churches and James Farrow.

The size and complexity of the data sets that epidemiologists and biostatisticians work with has increased significantly over the last two decades, and this trend is likely to accelerate. Manipulation and analysis of such large and complex data sets requires researchers to write increasingly complex sets of program code, often as member of an analytical team over the course of many months or several years.

The course will cover two key topics: managing changes to code over time using source code revision control systems (RCS) and related tools; and the use of small, easily written test programs and techniques to help ensure that your program code does what you think it is doing.

Click here for further information and to register to attend this course.

Register now for Population Health Short Courses at the Australian National University in Canberra in 2014: http://nceph.anu.edu.au/education/short-courses

Hosted by the National Centre for Epidemiology & Population Health (NCEPH), these 4-day short courses are presented by an experienced faculty of public health academics and expert practitioners in the field. Several are based on the award-winning Master of Applied Epidemiology curriculum, run by NCEPH since 1991. These courses are designed for people who already work in the field of population health and who want to refresh their public health knowledge and skills or those who may be considering a career in population health or related research.

Methods in Applied Epidemiological Research 26-29 August

An introduction to developing a proposal for an epidemiological study in the field, including reviewing the literature, study designs, developing research questions, ethics, questionnaire design, analysis and interpretation.

Register now for Population Health Short Courses at the Australian National University in Canberra in 2014: http://nceph.anu.edu.au/education/short-courses

Hosted by the National Centre for Epidemiology & Population Health (NCEPH), these 4-day short courses are presented by an experienced faculty of public health academics and expert practitioners in the field. Several are based on the award-winning Master of Applied Epidemiology curriculum, run by NCEPH since 1991. These courses are designed for people who already work in the field of population health and who want to refresh their public health knowledge and skills or those who may be considering a career in population health or related research.

Analysis of Public Health Data 1-4 September

This course covers collection of data in public health settings, along with cleaning, interpreting and analysing data. Analysis topics include standardisation, stratification and logistic regression. The course will use the statistical software package Stata.

The Kirby Institute Short Courses 2014

Registration deadlines approaching

Reduced rate for students!

The Kirby Institute is pleased to be offering four short courses starting in late 2014. These courses are recommended for post-graduate students, policy-makers, health service providers, academics, community workers focused on at-risk populations, and all those interested in developing a knowledge base in the subject areas. Each course is run over four days and led by prominent academics in the field. No special qualifications are required to enrol.
 
Deadlines for registration:

1. Evaluating the impact of public health programs - register by 01 September 
2. Researching with vulnerable groups - register by 01 September 
3. Infectious diseases epidemiology: from theory to practice - register by 15 November
4. Introduction to applied biostatistics- register by 15 November

See the attached document for a complete outline of our short courses, or view online.
 
Register at: http://www.kirby.unsw.edu.au/content/ki-short-courses

Location and mailing address:
The Kirby Institute, UNSW Australia,
Wallace Wurth Building, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

Fees:
Delegates: $1,200 (+GST) per course
Students: $600 (+GST) per course

The Kirby Institute Short Courses 2014

Registration deadlines approaching

Reduced rate for students!

The Kirby Institute is pleased to be offering four short courses starting in late 2014. These courses are recommended for post-graduate students, policy-makers, health service providers, academics, community workers focused on at-risk populations, and all those interested in developing a knowledge base in the subject areas. Each course is run over four days and led by prominent academics in the field. No special qualifications are required to enrol.
 
Deadlines for registration:

1. Evaluating the impact of public health programs - register by 01 September 
2. Researching with vulnerable groups - register by 01 September 
3. Infectious diseases epidemiology: from theory to practice - register by 15 November
4. Introduction to applied biostatistics- register by 15 November

See the attached document for a complete outline of our short courses, or view online.
 
Register at: http://www.kirby.unsw.edu.au/content/ki-short-courses

Location and mailing address:
The Kirby Institute, UNSW Australia,
Wallace Wurth Building, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

Fees:
Delegates: $1,200 (+GST) per course
Students: $600 (+GST) per course