Public Health calls for papers / meetings & conferences

Call for Papers: Second International Workshop on Design & Implementation of Independent & Assisted Living Technology – DIILT ’12

At 26th Annual HCI Conference of the British Computer Society HCI 2012 - People and Computers XXVI

Birmingham, U.K, 10th-14th September 2012

The aim of this workshop is to bring together experts, academics and practitioners to share experiences and expertise of assisted living technology, telecare or telehealth implementations and evaluations.

Discussions will focus on the challenges and best practices in evaluating the impact of practical and pragmatic implementations and large scale roll-out of health technologies 'in the wild' (i.e outside of the lab and beyond pilot studies).

The workshop will review case studies, trials, design, development and implementations of technologies reaching end-users in their homes to support, tele-care, telehealth, independent or assisted living. The aim is to assess how technologies can be integrated into people's homes and communities and how resulting benefits or disbenefits on people's health and wellbeing can be objectively measured and evaluated.

June 25th 2012 – Submission deadline

Call for Papers: Under Control?--Alcohol and Drug Regulation, Past and Present

Papers and panel proposals are invited for an international conference on the history of alcohol and drug regulation to be held in Bristol, UK 21-23rd June 2013.

The conference will explore all aspects of drug, tobacco and alcohol regulation. Work covering all periods and places, including recent history, will be considered.

Proposals

Panel proposals (3 x 20-minute papers) or individual papers (20 minutes) are invited. We will also consider proposals for fringe sessions using non-conventional formats e.g. screenings, debates etc.

Subjects may include (but are not limited to):

- Global drugs trade and the war on drugs

- Policymaking and the political process

- Regulation of drugs in art, film and literature

- Temperance and its influences

- Crime and policing

- Tobacco control

- Alcohol control, pricing and licensing

- Regulation of advertising, marketing and other media

- Religion and alcohol or drugs

- Dependency and treatment

- Drugs and alcohol in politics and social movements

- Use and control of drugs in premodern cultures

- Alcohol and drugs in popular culture

Proposal formats:

- Panel sessions: brief abstracts (c. 200 words) of each paper plus a brief statement (c. 200 words) outlining the panel theme and a brief biography of participants.

- Single papers: brief abstract (c. 200 words) and brief biography

- Fringe events: Outline of proposed event (up to 500 words) including proposed content, technical requirements and rationale.

Deadline

The deadline for proposals is 30th September 2012

Please send all submissions to undercontrol2013@gmail.com

Travel and accommodation

We hope to make bursaries available to graduate students and early-career academics. Further details will be provided on acceptance of submissions.

Publications

Selected papers from Under Control? will be published in a collected edition and we have an expression of interest from an international publisher.

Support

Under Control? is sponsored by the Alcohol and Drugs History Society, the Society for the Social History of Medicine, Bath Spa University, Bowling Green State University and Brock University.

Call for Papers: International Conference in Modeling Health Advances (ICMHA'12)

San Francisco, USA, 24-26 October, 2012

The International Conference in Modeling Health Advances 2012 will take place in San Francisco, USA, 24-26 October, 2012.

A host of new diseases, like HIV/AIDS, BSE, Avian Flu, West Nile Virus and others have appeared on the scene during the last twenty five years and undoubtedly, more will come in the coming years. To tackle these illnesses, the cooperation of modelers, mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists, and others, and of researchers from the medical community is absolutely essential. Modeling is important because it gives important insight into the method of treatment. In the case of HIV/AIDS, for example, mathematical modeling indicated that a combination of both protease inhibitors and reverse transcriptase inhibitors would be far more effective than any one of these two drugs.

The purpose of this conference is to bring all the people working in the area of epidemiology under one roof and encourage mutual interaction.

The conference ICMHA'12 is held under the World Congress on Engineering and Computer Science WCECS 2012. The WCECS 2012 is organized by the International Association of Engineers (IAENG), a non-profit international association for engineers and computer scientists. The congress has the focus on the frontier topics in the theoretical and applied engineering and computer science subjects. The last IAENG conference has attracted more than five hundred participants from over 30 countries. All submitted papers will be under peer review and accepted papers will be published in the conference proceeding (ISBN: 978-988-19251-6-9). The abstracts will be indexed and available at major academic databases. The accepted papers will also be considered for publication in the special issues of the journal Engineering Letters, in IAENG journals and in edited books by publishers like Springer.

Important Dates:
Draft Paper Submission Deadline: 2 July, 2012
Camera-Ready Papers Due & Registration Deadline: 30 July, 2012
ICMHA 2012: 24-26 October, 2012

Call for Papers: Historical and Contemporary Studies of Disasters

Placing Chernobyl, 9/11, Katrina, Deepwater Horizon, Fukushima and Other Events in Historical and Comparative Perspective

Co-Sponsored by the SHOT Prometheans (Engineering) SIG / SHOT Asia Network / Teach 3.11

and held during the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) Annual Meeting Sunday, 7 October 2012 Copenhagen, Denmark

For this year’s Prometheans / SHOT Asia Network SIG workshop (with co-sponsorship from Teach 3.11, a project of the Forum for the History of Science in Asia), we would like to focus on historical and contemporary studies of both natural and anthropogenic disasters. Inspired by discussions about Fukushima and the greater East Japan Earthquake (Tohoku-chiho Taiheiyo Oki Shishin) and tsunami during the SHOT/4S/HSS co-located meeting in Cleveland last year, an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars from these three societies decided to create an open forum for academic discussions about disasters and the opportunity to place them in historical and comparative perspective. This year’s SIG session will be one gathering of this forum, with a focus on analyzing the sociotechnical dimensions of disasters from historical and other disciplinary perspectives.

This workshop will take place during the Sunday morning* special-interest-group (SIG) time slot at the SHOT annual meeting in Copenhagen. (*This event may be 1/2 day or full day depending on the level of interest.) Offered in an interactive workshop format, the event will be directed primarily towards historical and contemporary studies of disasters of different scales. A portion of the program may also be dedicated to interpreting the events surrounding the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the East Japan Earthquake through comparison with other disasters. While we anticipate that historians may comprise a significant portion of the membership because the event will take place at SHOT, scholars of all academic disciplines are invited to contribute and to attend.

Among the kinds of papers that we are interested in seeing are the following:

Historical or contemporary studies of any disaster of natural or anthropogenic origin. Especially papers that focus on the organizational, technological, and/or sociotechnical dimensions of the disaster, and how this contributed to or exacerbated a particular disaster or the responses that followed the disaster.

An examination of the cultural, political, or economic dimensions of a particular industry, such as nuclear energy, oil extraction, or civil engineering and construction, and their contributions to the disaster.

Historical and contemporary studies of environmental movements and environmental organizations and their relationship to disasters and disaster response.

Any comparative study of disasters, and specific dimensions of disasters.

The workshop format will consist of pre-circulated papers (1000-1800 words in length) and prepared responses; open discussions around predetermined themes during the workshop; and written responses and reflections submitted following the workshop. Members of the Prometheans, SHOT Asia Network, and Teach 3.11 will serve as the program committee for this event, and will work organize the papers received into coherent sessions. Works-in-progress, and submissions by graduate students as well as senior scholars, from any nation, are actively encouraged.

We ask those who are interested to signal your interest by sending us an email, with proposed title, at your earliest convenience so we are able to make an early decision about the scope of the workshop. The applications process will be open until June 1st, by which point we will need a firm commitment to attend and a 300-word abstract from all participants. Pre-circulated papers will be due on September 1st. Those presenting material during the main SHOT conference are still welcome to participate in the workshop with the same (or different) material, and are encouraged to do so (please indicate, for planning purposes, that this will be the case).

Please send emails signaling your interest with a proposed title for your paper to the SIG Workshop Program Committee chair, Atsushi Akera at akeraa@rpi.edu.

Call for Abstracts: 3rd International Public Health & Palliative Care Conference

Limerick, Ireland, 25-27 April 2013

Abstract Submission – Deadline 31 July 2012

The International Public Health and Palliative Conference has been growing in its number of participants since the first conference was held in 2009 in Kerala, India. Up to 250 delegates will gather together for the 3rd International Public Health and Palliative Conference to be held in Limerick, Ireland between 25-27 April, 2013.

As part of the Conference, we are delighted to announce that the International Association for Health Promoting Palliative Care will be launched.

The scientific programme will consist of key-note speakers, invited papers, concurrent presentations and facilitated workshops based on submitted abstracts. We aim to achive a high number of scientific contributions in Limerick and will mix these with creative, thought provoking contributions, workshops and café conversations that bring clinicians and academics, professionals and non professionals together to discuss and reflect on death, dying, loss and care.

Conference organisers:

Milford Care Centre & the University of Limerick
c/o Milford Care Centre
Limerick, Ireland
Telephone: +353 (0)61 485 843
FAX: + 353 (0)61 331 181
PublicHealthPalliativeCare.org

Call for Papers: 2012 Quetelet Seminar--Adult Mortality and Morbidity

December 5-7, 2012 Research Centre in Population and Societies, Catholic University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Numerous demographic studies have been focusing on mortality and range from analysis of age-specific mortality to cause-of-death analysis or risks factors analysis. In countries with a long statistical tradition, mortality levels by sex, age and cause of death are easily obtained. Epidemiologists as well as demographers took interest in identifying risks factors and markers by age, sex and cause. Although these factors and markers remain the same for morbidities and the resulting mortality, little is known about morbidity levels, be it in terms of prevalence or incidence, except for pathologies that are recorded in specific registrars or for which large surveys are conducted. In countries with incomplete demographic data, both mortality and morbidity are little or badly documented except when subjected to specific surveys such as under-5 mortality or, to a lesser extent, morbidity. The need for medical diagnosis and assessment of severity of illness makes morbidity data collection especially challenging. Morbidity data collection is especially challenging as it involves. In addition, in armed conflict, post-conflict or natural disaster situations, evaluating the number of victims is crucial to assess needs as well as to ease the reconciliation process.

The 2012 Quetelet Seminar will focus on adult age morbidity and mortality analysis from the data collection and measurement perspective. It will be organised in collaboration with the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (UCL-CRED/WHO) and International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their Health in Developing Countries (INDEPTH). Communications will cover existing or in-the-making tools for data collection and measurement that serve to estimate adult-age morbidity levels in countries with good-level statistical data and adult-age morbidity and mortality levels in countries with incomplete data. Particular attention will be devoted to papers that deal with estimating mortality and morbidity in crisis or post-crisis time. Studies analysing interactions between mortality and morbidity as well as the role of health monitoring systems in situations conducive to potentially high public health risk are encouraged.

The 2012 Quetelet Seminar will be organised along the following three axes:

1. Morbidity Analysis

What are the existing data collection and measurement tools to estimate incidence and prevalence of diseases, including chronic diseases? What are their limits?

What morbidity data collection and registration tools are most effective? What are the most reliable data to collect for the measurement of functional and cognitive abilities in a population so as to evaluate dependency ratios? What health monitoring systems should be developed to detect and prevent infectious disease?

2. Adult mortality in countries where data are incomplete

What are the latest developments in the estimation of adult mortality in countries where civil registration data are incomplete or non-existent? How has adult mortality changed recently in developing countries, more than three decades after the onset of the HIV epidemic and in a context of increased access to antiretroviral treatment? Beyond mortality levels, how are inequalities in adult mortality analysed (by sex, according to educational or poverty levels)? What are the lessons to be learned from demographic surveillance sites, particularly in terms of causes of death, as reflected by verbal autopsies and associated tools?

3. Demographic impacts of armed conflicts and natural disasters

What impact armed conflicts and natural disasters have on adult morbidity and mortality? How is this impact measured? What different forms of resilience develop and how are they captured? What early warning systems can be put in place to limit the impact of disasters?

Instructions for submitting paper
Abstracts (1 page including tables) should be submitted by email before 8th June, 2012 to Isabelle Theys (Isabelle.Theys@uclouvain.be). The abstracts should include a description of the paper’s objective, background, data and research methods, as well as expected findings. Authors of accepted papers will be notified by 29th June.

Paper
The completed papers, either in English or French, should be sent before 15th November, 2012. The final version should not exceed 20 single-spaced pages, including tables and references.

Language
Papers will be presented in French or English, without simultaneous translation.

Publication
A selection of publications will be published in the proceedings of the Chaire Quetelet 2012.

Deadlines
Deadline for submission: 8th June, 2012
Author notification of accepted paper abstract: 29th June, 2012
Deadline for complete paper: 15th November, 2012
Quetelet Seminar: 5th-7th December, 2012

Call for Papers for a Panel on Climate Change (2011-2014) at the International Seminar on Population Dynamics and the Human Dimensions of Climate Change

Canberra, Australia, 27-29 November 2012

Organized by the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Climate Change, in collaboration with the Australian National University

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 25 May 2012

A strong consensus has emerged among natural scientists during the last 20 years that contemporary climate change is in large part anthropogenic. There is a need now for social scientists to contribute more to our understanding of the human causes and consequences of climate change if more effective policy responses are to eventuate. Demographers have an important contribution to make; in fact their contribution is arguably pivotal to a broad interdisciplinary understanding of the issues since the concept of “population” is basic both to social scientists working on mitigation and adaptation and to ecologists and other Earth scientists.

The primary aim of this seminar is to bring together researchers who are working in the new field of population dynamics and climate change so we can take stock of what scientific progress has been made to date, share and consolidate our understanding of on-going research, strengthen and expand professional networks, and discuss priorities for future research and collaboration. A secondary and derived aim is to examine the extent to which a population perspective can help integrate insights into the human dimensions of climate change from across a number of social sciences.

The Panel seeks papers which add to our understanding of the links between population dynamics and the causes and consequences of climate change, which operate at various scales: global, regional, national, and local. We are looking for a mix of theoretical, methodological and policy-relevant papers. Issues of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

The way demographic factors and processes such as population growth, urbanization, ageing, changing household size, increasing human capital, and social mobility contribute to the drivers of greenhouse gas emissions;

The way demographic factors and processes influence the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of social groups;

The way demographic factors and processes need to be incorporated in effective mitigation and adaptation strategies;

Population-related obstacles (or advantages) to the development of effective policy; and

Conceptual analysis leading to improved integration of demographic insights regarding climate change with insights from other social sciences and the Earth sciences.

Submissions
The IUSSP Scientific Panel on Climate Change invites researchers in the field to submit online by 25 May 2012 a 200-word abstract and an extended abstract (2-4 pages including tables). Applications will be notified whether their paper has been accepted by 25 June. If the paper is accepted the completed paper must be uploaded on the IUSSP website by 10 October 2012.

If the paper is co-authored, please indicate on the abstract the names and affiliations of co-authors; submission should be made by the author who will attend the seminar.

The working language of the seminar will be English. Abstracts, extended abstracts and final papers should therefore be submitted and presented in English. Papers submitted should be unpublished and based on original research. Seminar organizers will explore possibilities to publish a selection of accepted papers.

Seminar organizers are still negotiating additional funding to that already committed. We hope to have sufficient funds to cover travel expenses for all invited participants who require support. If funding is available it will be contingent upon submission of a complete paper of acceptable quality by the deadline for papers.

For further information please contact Adrian C Hayes (adrian_hayes84@yahoo.com).

IUSSP Scientific Panel on Climate Change:
Chair: Adrian C Hayes
Members: Susana Adamo, Leiwen Jiang, Wolfgang Lutz.

Call for Abstracts: International Society for Disease Surveillance Annual Conference

The ISDS Annual Conference is the premier event dedicated to the advancement of the science and practice of biosurveillance. This year’s theme, Expanding Collaborations to Chart a New Course in Public Health Surveillance, will highlight the importance of working together across agencies, sectors, and disciplines to improve surveillance methods and population health outcomes. The conference will be held at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina in San Diego, CA, December 4-5, 2012, with Pre-Conference Workshops on December 3rd.

The ISDS Conference draws professionals from a broad range of disciplines— epidemiology and computer science to mathematical modeling and health policy—to learn and contribute the latest achievements, methodologies, best practices, conceptual frameworks, and technical innovations in the rapidly evolving field of biosurveillance. This year's conference will provide fertile ground for cultivating new ideas and partnerships with roundtable discussions, panels and other opportunities to collaborate.

The scope of this conference includes all of the components, policies, methods, practices, infrastructure, research and evaluation related to timely surveillance of communicable diseases, chronic diseases and injuries. This includes notifiable conditions, adverse events and emerging/novel threats; biological, chemical, and radiological health threats; plant, animal, and food surveillance; and environmental monitoring.

Questions regarding the Call for Abstracts may be sent to Tera Reynolds, ISDS Program Manager.

Submission deadline: September 6, 2012 (11:59pm Eastern Daylight Time)

Authors notified of acceptance: October 3, 2012

Pre-Conference Workshops: December 3, 2012

Annual Conference: December 4-5, 2012

Submission Types

Note: All abstracts for the ISDS Conference will be submitted using ScholarOne. There is a limit of 4810 characters for the text of your submission. The character count includes spaces. The character count WILL include title, authors, institutions, tables, and images, but WILL NOT include presenting author brief biographical summaries (bios) or the abstract summary that will be used in the conference program.

Oral

All abstracts submitted for oral presentation are automatically considered for poster presentation as well. Include the following components when submitting an abstract for oral presentation:

· Title (85 characters MAX)

· Objective

· Introduction

· Methods

· Results

· Conclusions

· Acknowledgements

· References

· Names and affiliations of authors

· Brief bio of lead author/intended presenter (450 characters/75 words)

· Brief summary (600 characters/100 words) of submission to be used in conference program

Poster

Include the following components when submitting an abstract for poster presentation:

· Title (85 characters MAX)

· Objective

· Introduction

· Methods

· Results

· Conclusions

· Acknowledgements

· References

· Names and affiliations of authors

· Brief bio of lead author/intended presenter (450 characters/75 words)

· Brief summary (600 characters/100 words) of submission (for potential inclusion in conference program)

Panel *New for 2012*

Panel topics should be a specific aspect of design, theory, application, or experience pertaining to the science or practice of biosurveillance. Suggested panels should be comprised of no more than four participants and a moderator. A typical panel session will consist of four 15 minute presentations, each followed by 5 minutes of questions, with 10 minutes for closing discussion (presentation lengths will be subject to change based on final agenda). When submitting an abstract for a panel, include the following components:

· Title (85 characters MAX)

· Objective

· Introduction

· Panel description

· How the moderator intends to engage the audience in discussions on the panel topic

· Names of panel presenters, moderator and affiliations

· Brief bios for each panel presenter and moderator (450 characters/75 words each) for abstract reviewers to assess appropriateness to serve on the panel for the described topic

· Brief summary (600 characters/100 words) of panel to be used in conference program

Roundtable *New for 2012*

Roundtables can have up to three facilitators to briefly introduce the topic of interest and facilitate active discussion among attendees. Roundtables must be discussion-oriented rather than didactic, lecture-driven sessions. Roundtable discussions will be 60-90 minutes (depending on final agenda). When submitting an abstract for a roundtable, include the following components:

· Title (85 characters MAX)

· Objective

· Introduction

· Roundtable description

· How the facilitator intends to engage the audience in the roundtable discussion, including sample questions

· Names of facilitators and affiliations

· Brief bios for each facilitator (450 characters/75 words each) for abstract reviewers to assess appropriateness to lead a discussion on the described topic

· Brief summary (600 characters/100 words) of roundtable to be used in conference program

System Showcase Demonstrations *New for 2012*

System showcase demonstrations will be presented during the evening poster session on the first day of the conference. A typical demonstration will illustrate one or more aspects of an innovative population/public health surveillance system that is in use or under development. Demonstrations of open source and/or free products are strongly encouraged. System showcase demonstrations are not intended to be marketing or sales presentations and such submissions will be rejected; those interested in supporting the ISDS conference with an exhibit booth should contact Tera Reynolds at ISDS for more information. When submitting an abstract for a system showcase demonstration, include the following components:

· Title (85 characters MAX)

· Objective

· Introduction

· Description, highlighting benefits to public/population health surveillance and how this demonstration will be a unique addition to the ISDS conference

· Conclusions, including lessons learned and design principles from this demonstration that attendees can take away, even if not using or intending to use the system demonstrated

· Names of demonstrators and affiliations

· Brief summary (600 characters/100 words) of showcase to be used in conference program

Track Descriptions

I. Analytical Methods

a. Analytical Methods: Applied

b. Analytical Methods: Research & Development

This theme is focused on important and novel advances in the field of surveillance methodologies and analytical approaches. Abstracts in the Applied sub-track should describe methods or processes routinely used in a production-type environment. Abstracts in the Research and Development sub-track should describe methods and processes still under development or tested within a research or pilot setting. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

· Analytic evaluation of surveillance components

· Decision support

· Estimating morbidity and impact

· Evaluation of algorithms and systems through epidemic simulation

· Geospatial analysis

· Innovative use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology

· Integrating evidence from multiple sources

· Integration of mathematical modeling and statistical analyses

· New algorithms and evaluation of existing algorithms for cluster and event detection

· Pattern recognition algorithms

· Predictive disease modeling/predictive analytics

· Spatial cluster detection

· Statistical methods and tools for analyzing and interpreting data

· Time series analysis

II. Informatics

a. Informatics: Applied

b. Informatics: Research & Development

Abstracts in the Applied sub-track should describe methods or processes routinely used in a production-type environment. Abstracts in the Research and Development sub-track should describe methods and processes still under development or tested within a research or pilot setting. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

· Advances in methods for classifying data

· Approaches to building interoperable surveillance systems and components

· Borderless data exchange models (e.g. federated information sharing approaches)

· Cloud computing for public health surveillance

· Data integration – acquiring, moving, storing, processing, coding, normalizing, and preparing data for analysis between systems

· Data quality

· Data visualization methods

· Electronic health records and public health surveillance

· Health information exchange

· How clinical information systems can support public health surveillance efforts

· How public health information systems can support clinical efforts

· Informatics lessons learned

· Information and knowledge exchange

· Innovations in public health informatics

· Mobile technologies for public health

· Natural language processing

· Standards and Interoperability Framework (Public Health Reporting Initiative)

· Standards used in public health surveillance

· System architectures for limited connectivity environments and disaster surveillance

· System architectures for surveillance in low-resource environments

· System architectures to leverage HIE for public health surveillance

· System descriptions of real-world solutions to challenging integration problems

· Workforce requirements and training

· Use of social media for biosurveillance

III. Policy (at local, state, federal, international levels)

This theme is focused on sharing successes, challenges or approaches leveraged in the use or development of policy which affects biosurveillance operations and activities. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

· Creating successful surveillance partnerships

· Data sharing policies

· Federal policy agendas

· Funding strategies for surveillance

· How public health surveillance data have been used to inform policy

· International Health Regulations

· Legal/ethical/security/privacy issues in surveillance

· Meaningful Use responses by public health departments

· Policies around social media/leveraging social networks for risk communication, etc.

· Research collaborations to expand evidence-based health policy

· Workforce

IV. Public/Population health surveillance

a. Public/Population Health Surveillance: Practice

b. Public/Population Health Surveillance: Research

c. Public/Population Health Surveillance: Evaluation

This theme is focused on improving the daily processes of timely public/population health surveillance, including detection, signal validation, event characterization, investigation, and response. Abstracts in the Practice sub-track should describe practices routinely used in a production environment and/or deployed in field by public health departments or other agencies. Abstracts in the Research sub-track should describe research related to surveillance, health systems, etc. Abstracts in the Evaluation sub-track should describe evaluations of public/population health surveillance systems, workflows, protocols, etc. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

· Adverse drug events and pharmacovigilance

· Case studies

· Chronic disease surveillance

· Collaboration success stories

· Contact tracing and network analysis

· Disaster/event surveillance

· Disparities surveillance

· Evaluation of surveillance systems

· Infectious disease surveillance

· Influenza-like illness surveillance

· Injury surveillance

· Innovations in biosurveillance

· Integrating surveillance across multiple data sources

· Integrating surveillance systems, e.g. syndromic and reportable diseases

· Linking response with frontline health workers

· Meaningful Use and how it’s changing/not changing surveillance practice

· Measuring vaccine efficacy, coverage, etc.

· Messaging/risk communication (what to say to the public, politicians and media about syndromic systems alerts)

· Mobile technologies for public health

· Novel approaches to communicable diseases surveillance and reporting (e.g., notifiable conditions, MRSA, nosocomial infections)

· OneHealth

· Outbreak detection, characterization and outbreak management

· School and university surveillance

· Situational awareness

· Social media and surveillance

· Surveillance across borders

· Surveillance for refugees and recent immigrants

· Surveillance in resource-limited settings

· Surveillance using ambulatory care data

· Surveillance using inpatient data

· Vaccine-preventable disease surveillance

Call for Papers: Beyond ‘Them’ and ‘Us’? Enacting Social Science Within the Public Health Research Agenda on Chronic Illness

Tuesday 18 September 2012. Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Keynote Speakers: Professor David Armstrong, King’s College London; Professor Rose Barbour, Open University

For social scientists employed in public health settings, the activities, institutions and practices marked by the term ‘public health research’ may be approached conceptually in at least three different ways:

(a) as a ‘field of work’ within which they are located, for example as doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and in more permanent posts (‘us’)

(b) as a ‘topic of enquiry’ (an aspect of society) they are called upon to investigate (‘them’)

(c) as a recursive activity, in which they, along with every other individual, form part of the research object as well as its agent, that is by being members of a population or ‘public’ (‘we’).

Beyond Them and Us aims to unpack and critically explore this triple dimension. As early career sociologists employed in a public health setting, we observe that colleagues from biomedically-oriented disciplines sometimes express the expectation that ‘our’ contribution ‘add meaning’ to ‘their’ findings, for instance data derived from controlled trials or policy initiatives based on models of ‘complex intervention’. Yet social science approaches prompt a critical evaluation of how such methods and epistemic practices themselves operate. Similarly, within the field of chronic illness, there is often a hiatus between ‘our’ and ‘their’ understandings of the nominally designated goal of research. For instance, the shared starting point of the ‘obesity epidemic’ is interpreted in different ways.

Such differences frequently seem to lead to misunderstanding and even conflict at institutional and/or personal levels. They are inseparable from wider social and political trends, and deeply entangled with issues of the power and status of different sciences. More easily overlooked is the extent to which we are all inescapably participant subjects as well as protagonists of public health research enterprises. This further problematises any easy distinction between lay, biomedical and social-scientific orientations.

Within academic commentary, these issues are frequently framed in terms of the respective theoretical merits of ‘qualitative’ and ‘quantitative’ approaches, or proposed reconciliations between the two. In contrast, ongoing entanglements and discriminations of ‘us’, ‘them’ and ‘we’ suggest a far messier, dynamic and literally informal picture. Key questions concern whose is the social science contribution within public health research, who or what is that contribution for, and how best to enact and communicate that contribution in the real world? Discussion of these questions tends to be reserved to ‘off-page’ and ‘off-stage’ settings (e.g. frustrations shared over coffee). A more explicit articulation involves rethinking how we might theoretically and practically work with multiple and fluctuating demands, aspirations and ways of seeing.

Beyond Them and Us aims to recover the notion of ‘enacting social science within public health’ as in itself a legitimate field of social enquiry and to begin to explore a range of creative and constructive restatements, responses and/or possible resolutions. The symposium is targeted especially at early career (doctoral and postdoctoral) social scientists working within public health who face issues and dilemmas similar to those described, although proposed contributions may come from those working in any setting and from any disciplinary background. Contributions focusing on specific empirical contexts (whether ‘successes’ or ‘failures’) and/ or taking a wider critical or reflective stance are equally welcome.

Submission Process: Abstracts of not more than 300 words should be e-mailed to socsciinph@medschl.cam.ac.uk by Friday 15 June 2012. When sending the abstract please state full title of proposed paper, author(s’) name(s), affiliation, and e-mail contact details. You will be informed by early July whether your paper has been selected for the symposium.

As a second stage of the process, authors of selected papers will be requested to provide a written version (at least in summary form) of their contribution by Monday 3 September 2012 at the latest so that this can be circulated to other participants prior to the symposium. The purpose of this is to encourage a fuller cross-fertilisation of ideas and to stimulate richer and more productive discussion on the day.

Other: Subject to the outcome of funding applications, it is possible a charge may need to be imposed for participation in the symposium (including for speakers selected via this CFP) in order to cover costs. However this will be no more than £40 (with a reduced rate of £20 for all students including PhDs).

The event is organised by Emily Taylor and Paul Stronge, Research Associates, based at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge.

All enquiries to socsciinph@medschl.cam.ac.uk please.

Call for Abstracts: 1st International Conference on Cultural Psychiatry in Mediterranean Countries

November 5-7, 2012 Tel Aviv, Israel

Abstracts have to be submitted by 1 July 2012.

The 1st International Conference on Cultural Psychiatry in Mediterranean Countries is a highly anticipated and ambitious event that seeks to deal with novel issues appearing in a world of open frontiers, new opportunities and international upheaval and conflicts, particularly relevant in light of recent events in the region.

Identity is an evolving concept, where group boundaries have become blurred. Mental health professionals will be given the opportunity to participate in stimulating and fruitful discussions on a great variety of issues such as clinical aspects of acculturative stress, neuropsychopharmacology and integrative treatment methods.

The conference, to be held 5-7 November 2012, is aimed at leading psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, social anthropologists, students and anyone with a specialized interest in the rapidly evolving area of transcultural psychiatry.

Preliminary List of Topics

Mood, anxiety and psychotic disorders related to migration
Cultural neuropsychopharmacology
Suicide and cultural transition
Trauma and migration
Religiosity and spirituality
Stigma and Culture
Cultural transition

Kenes International
Kenes Group Building
2 Hayarden St.
Airport City, Lod 70151
Israel
Tel: +972 3 9727405
Fax: + 972 72 2447271
E-mail: wpa-tps@kenes-events.com