Journal Club with Distinguished Visiting Epidemiologist, Dr. Sharon Schwartz

Sharon Schwartz, PhD, currently focuses her work on the relationship between potential outcomes approaches to causality and systems dynamics. Dr. Schwartz is particularly interested in how methodological tools, the assumptions on which they are based and the language in which they are discussed, frame the interpretation of data. In the course of studying the effect of social factors on psychiatric disorders, Dr. Schwartz became intrigued by the diametrically opposed conclusions that scientists from different disciplines often draw from the same data. This current interest resulted in a research program that encompasses a wide range of specific methodological issues, such as heritability estimates, well controls, diagnostic validity, the definition of "disorder," as well as more general problems of causal inference, including the implications of Rubin's causal model and other counterfactual approaches, and the relationship between the Cook and Campbell tradition in social psychology and epidemiologic traditions. She also does research on the effects of prejudice and discrimination on the mental health of disadvantaged groups. Dr. Schwartz is the training coordinator for the Psychiatric Epidemiology Training Program and teaches epidemiologic methods. She participates in the Teagle Colleguim on Psychological Science and Student Learning to integrate evidenced based teaching and mentoring practices into epidemiology.

The overall theme of the UW visit will be to discuss the implications of a fairly radical change that is occurring in epidemiology with the popularization of potential outcomes (aka counterfactual) frameworks. As these frameworks become normative, they help clarify many central epidemiologic concepts and provide new investigative tools. At the same time, they have implications for the types of research questions that have legitimacy and for how research results are interpreted. I hope to provide an accessible introduction to this conceptual framework and begin a conversation about its potential utility and impact on epidemiologic research.

Suggested Reading:

• Journal Club: Schwartz S, Susser - The use of well controls: an unhealthy practice in psychiatric research

Causal Inference: Implications of Rubin's Causal Model and Other Counterfactual Approaches

Distinguished Visiting Epidemiologist, Sharon Schwartz, Ph.D.
Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Noel S.Weiss, MD, DrPH
Professor
Cancer epidemiology, epidemiologic methods, clinical epidemiology
Department of Epidemiology
University of Washington

Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute, Sponsored by Health Sciences Administration & University of Washington Medical Center

Keynote Speaker: James Pfeiffer, Associate Professor, Global Health and Health Services

Dorothy Mann, Clinical Associate Professor, Health Services will be awarded the 2012 Distinguished Service Award.

Eckstein Middle School Senior Jazz group will perform.

IHME presents: Christopher J.L. Murray, MD, DPhil, Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and Professor of Global Health at the University of Washington. A physician and health economist, Dr. Murray is widely regarded as one of the founders of modern population health measurement. Dr. Murray created the concept of the Global Burden of Disease with Dr. Alan Lopez while working as a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.

This week's speaker is Melissa Schiff on "Sinking Ships: Boating Accidents in Washington State for 2003-2010"

Dr. Schiff is the director of education at the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center. She is a professor in epidemiology in the school of public health and Associate Director of the Maternal and Child Health Program at the University of Washington. Dr. Schiff's research interests are injury epidemiology with a focus sports injuries and injury during pregnancy. She also teaches the course "Injury and Violence: A Public Health Approach" . She completed her medical degree at the University of Michigan, her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of New Mexico and her master's in public health at the University of Washington.

It is an honor to announce that Dr. Koepsell will be back at UW to give a talk on "An Epidemiologist Looks at Art."

Dr. Tom Koepsell, now Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology and Health Services, has been keenly interested in art history for several years. He has served as art cover commentator for Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a major pediatrics journal. In the course of six art trips to Europe and many visits to art museums in the U.S., he encountered a number of paintings and drawings that revealed connections between the worlds of art and of epidemiology, some of them explicit and others a bit more hidden. This informal seminar will focus on about 8-10 of those works.