International Summer School on Advanced Methods in Global Health

Dates

6-10 September 2021

Dedicació

Full Time

Modalitat

Online - Synchronous

Llengua

English

Durada

5 days

The online ISGlobal Summar School proposes a unique interdisciplinary teaching program, organized in six different modules among which participants can choose.

The objective is to give an in-depth overview of cross-cutting methods for global health, including quantitative health impact assessment methods, data science algorithms applied to health and biology, eHealth tools, and innovative methods for predicting health and diseases in exposome studies. 

Specific modules are also dedicated to tackle global health challenges, such as climate change and other challenges of the Anthropocene (through a Planetary Health approach), and the disruptive impact in society of infectious diseases. 

Theoretical and practical sessions determine the content of our interdisciplinary summer school course. 

Learning objectives:

• Develop interdisciplinary competence in advanced methods for tackling different global health challenges
• Assess strengths and limitations of the different approaches
• Apply some of the studied methods to specific public health studies
• Acquire knowledge and skills on key global health topics, as Planetary Health and climate change, and the global health and societal impact of infectious diseases
• Expand their personal and professional network by e-meeting people from different nationalities and backgrounds

Modules:

From 9h to 11h (except Friday from 9h to 10:30h):

• Module 1: Health Impact Assessment: Principles and Practice 
• Module 2: Approaching health outcomes through digital technologies

From 11:30h to 13:30h (except Friday from 11h to 12:30h):

• Module 3: Introduction to Biomedical Data Science & Machine Learning
• Module 4: Endemic and pandemic infectious diseases and their disruptive impact in society

From 14:30h to 16:30h (except Friday from 13h to 14:30h):

• Module 5: Planetary Health: An approach to climate change and other challenges of the Anthropocene
• Module 6: Exposome concepts and innovative tools

*All times above are CET Time. Detailed information on each module available at the "modules" tab above.

Modules of the same time slot are done in parallel. Therefore you can take a maximum of three modules in total, one per time slot. 

Keynote lectures and networking activities opened to all the enrolled students will be organized and announced shortly. 

The Summer School is supported by funding from our “Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2019-2023” Program (CEX 2018-000806-S) from the Spanish State Research Agency, a body affiliated with the Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Module 1: Health Impact Assessment: Principles and Practices

• Coordinator: David Rasella
• Aim: To provide a comprehensive overview of the main theoretical and methodological approaches for HIA, applied to different health topics and outcomes
• Learning Objectives: (1) To understand the underlying assumptions and principles of HIA (2) to identify strengths and limitations of each HIA method, and be able to select the most appropriate HIA technique, according to study objectives and conditions; (3) to be able to develop basic HIA and correctly interpret their results, rather than focus on the mathematical derivation of the methods.

Module 2: Approaching health outcomes through digital technologies

• Coordinator: Guillaume Chevance
• Aim: To provide basic knowledges and tools to design, implement and analyze observational and/or interventional studies using digital technologies such as smartphones’ app and activity/sleep monitors
• Learning Objectives: (1) being able to setting-up studies or projects taking advantage of digital technologies; (2) being able to pick the right tools and right designs to answer your research questions; (3) being able to handle simple time-series analyses collected with smartphones or activity monitors.
• Minimal students' requirements to attend this module: For the practical part, having the statistical software R and R Studio installed on your computer. See for example: https://www.dataquest.io/blog/tutorial-getting-started-with-r-and-rstudio/

Module 3: Introduction to Biomedical Data Science & Machine Learning

• Coordinator: Paula Petrone
• Aim: (i) The students understand the scope, advantages and limitations of data science algorithms in the field of health & biology. (ii) The students learn to apply basic techniques used for the interpretation and analysis of biomedical data, including visualization and machine learning.
• Learning Objectives: (1) Students acquire a general overview to machine learning (definition, applications); (2) Students learn about data science applications to the Life Sciences, including limitations and opportunities; (3) Students approach new data sets with questions and implement data analytics and visualization techniques.
• Minimal students' requirements to attend this module: Basic programming is only required for the practical session.

Module 4: Endemic and pandemic infectious diseases and their disruptive impact in society

• Coordinator: Quique Bassat
• Aim: To review and critically appraise the global health and societal impact of infectious diseases, using as examples infections that “have always been with us” (malaria, Tuberculosis, etc.) and emerging infections such as HIV, Ebola or COVID-19 that have more recently appeared.
• Learning Objectives: 
  (1) To understand the basic concepts of epidemiological transition and interplay between infections, mortality and development
  (2) To become familiarized with the epidemiology, burden and basic characteristics of a few important IDs, namely: 1) Malaria, 2) Tuberculosis, 3) HIV, 4) Neglected tropical infections; 5) Emerging infections with pandemic potential
  (3) To understand diagnosis, management and control strategies for IDs, both in endemic and epidemic contexts, or emergency situations
  (4) To review the importance of preventive strategies (including vaccines) for the prevention of IDs, and their impact throughout the years
  (5) To understand preparedness needs for future pandemics 

Module 5: Planetary Health: An approach to climate change and other challenges of the Anthropocene

• Coordinator: Cristina O'Callaghan
• Aim: Planetary health is the achievement of the highest attainable standard of health, wellbeing, and equity worldwide through judicious attention to the human systems—political, economic, and social— within the limits of Earth’s natural systems. The concept of Planetary Health arises in the context of the global environmental and climate crisis that defines the Anthropocene. The aim of this course is to understand the changes that the Anthropocene entails in natural systems and to analyse the main challenges that these changes pose to human health and the environment. In this respect, a strong focus will be placed on understanding the physical basis and impacts of climate change. The main governance strategies for the development and implementation of responses to achieve Planetary Health will also be introduced.
• Learning Objectives: (1) Describe the main changes in Earth’s natural systems that characterize the Anthropocene, as well as explaining the complex dynamics and interactions of these changes.
  (2) Explain health problems in terms of Planetary Health, identifying the impacts of the environment on health and the impacts of human activity, including health, on the planet.
  (3) Identify and explain the main determinants of human induced climate change in natural systems (including both historical and future climate change).
  (4) Identify and categorize the main impacts of global environmental change on human health.
  (5) Recognize, analyze and argue the main strategies to promote Planetary Health.
  (6) Critically assess the governance strategies necessary to promote a sustainable society, such as the 2030 Agenda.

Module 6: Exposome concepts and innovative tools

• Coordinator: Léa Maitre
• Aim: To provide basic knowledge and tools to design, implement and analyze exposome studies including using advanced statistical tools.
• Learning Objectives: (1) Understand the different components of the exposome (external, internal); (2) Select the right study design and statistical analysis tools to conduct exposome studies (3) Learn about the different tools to measure the exposome and its biological imprints (urban environment, chemical biomonitoring, omics) (4) Learn advanced statistical tools to analyse exposome data, including omics.
• Minimum students' requirements to attend the module: Each participant must have an introductory background in statistics and epidemiology (see Summer School minimal requirements)
  Each participant is required to have a personal laptop. If you would like to participate in the hands-on data labs offered by this module, you will need to have R downloaded and installed prior to the first day of the workshop as all lab sessions will be done on your personal laptop. R is available for free download and installation on Mac, PC, and Linux devices. 
  This course module will provide lab tutorials with data sets in R, therefore we recommend participants to have a basic understanding of this platform prior to attending the course to get the most out of lab sessions, although R knowledge is not required if you do not plan to participate in lab sessions.  

* Detailed programme for each module will be announced shortly.

Fees:

Participants can select a maximum of three modules:

- One module: 50Euros

- Two modules: 75Euros

- Three modules: 100Euros

This course is offered free of charge for:

- Participants from low-and middle-income countries (according to World Bank classification)

- ISGlobal Alumni members registered in the Linkedin Group 

- ISGlobal Staff

Requirements:

• Bachelor or Master's Degree in epidemiology, computer science, bioinformatics, public health, global health, environmental sciences, biostatistics, biomedicine, or a related discipline. 
• Basic knowledge in epidemiology and statistics
• Advanced level of English 

Application:

Interested candidates must (1) complete the application form and (2) submit:

• a current C.V.
• a letter of motivation that clearly indicates the course modules that you would like to attend (Note: a maximum of 3 modules can be taken in total, one for each time slot) 

Please note that in order to have your application considered, you must clearly name your files as follows: (Surname_Name_CV)  /  (Surname_Name_Motivation letter). Documents with incorrect name files will not be accepted.

The revision of applications and notification of admissions will be done on a rolling basis. You can expect to be contacted within approximately five days after sending your application.

Deadline for applications: 23 July