The University of Southern Denmark is happy to announce the second European offering of highly successful courses previously offered only in North America:

============================ 1) "*An Introduction to Bayesian Disease Mapping*" ============================

A Two-Day Course, April 12.- 13. 2010, University of Southern Denmark

Course content -------------------- This course is designed to provide an introduction to the area of Bayesian disease mapping in applications to Public Health and Epidemiology:

The two-day course consists of sessions dealing with:

DAY 1

· Basic concepts of Bayesian methods and disease mapping · Bayesian computation and MCMC · Basic R and WinBUGS use · Demonstration of risk estimation and cluster detection using WinBUGS

DAY 2

· Hands-on with simple WinBUGS models: Poisson-gamma; convolution models for risk estimation · Ecological analysis, cluster models and space-time analysis · Infectious disease models and veterinary data

This is designed for those who want to cover more advanced mapping methods, and includes ecological analysis and the use of WinBUGS software.

The course will include theoretical input, but also practical elements and participants will be involved hands-on in the use of R and WinBUGS in disease mapping applications. Both human and veterinary examples will be covered in the course as well as simple infectious disease space-time modelling. Examples will range over congenital anomaly birth data, influenza in South Carolina, foot-and-mouth disease in the UK and oral cancer in Georgia,

For more details, the brochure and application form go to

http://www.si-folkesundhed.dk/upload/ibdm_sif_2010.pdf

======================= 2) "*Advanced Bayesian Disease Mapping*" =======================

A Two-Day Course, April 15. + 16. 2010, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark

COURSE CONTENT ------------------------- This course is designed to provide advanced coverage of Bayesian disease mapping topics in applications to Public Health and Epidemiology: It is intended as an extension to the course: *An Introduction to Bayesian Disease Mapping*.

Emphasis on the course is placed on spatial and spatio-temporal Bayesian modeling issues, and some knowledge of Bayesian computation and WinBUGS is assumed.

The two-day course consists of sessions dealing with:

DAY 1 Spatial topics

* Spatial models and simple variants: convolution, proper CAR, full MVN * Special applications: sparse count data: zip and factorial regression * Special applications: latent structure (L&C and mixtures) * Spatial survival modelling * Measurement error, SEMS and Joint modelling. * WinBUGS, R2winBUGS and BRugs

DAY 2 Spatio-temporal modelling topics

* Basic ST models: Bernardinelli, Knorr-Held, Waller; seasonal effects * ST latent structure modeling * Infectious disease models: FMD and influenza outbreaks

This is designed for those who want to cover advanced BDM methods, and includes advanced use of WinBUGS and related R functions: R2WinBUGS, BRugs. The course will include theoretical input, but also practical elements and participants will be involved hands-on in the use of R and WinBUGS in disease mapping applications. Both spatial and spatio-temporal analyses will be considered. Examples will range over childhood asthma data from Georgia, influenza in South Carolina, foot-and-mouth disease in the UK and prostate cancer in Louisiana.

For more information, the brochure and application form go to

http://www.si-folkesundhed.dk/upload/abdm_sif_2010.pdf

For both courses:

The speaker is ---------------- Professor Andrew B. Lawson (Division of Biostatistics & Epidemiology, College of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina) is a World Health Organization (WHO) advisor on Disease Mapping and organized with the WHO an International workshop on this topic which has led to an edited volume "Disease Mapping and Risk Assessment for Public Health". He has published a number of books focused on disease mapping and spatial epidemiology. In particular, a new volume entitled "Bayesian Disease Mapping" will be a course text for this course. A copy of the book is included in the course fee.

Who should attend ----------------- The courses are intended for epidemiologists and public health workers who need to analyse geographical disease incidence. In addition, the course may be of interest to statisticians or geographers and planners who deal with spatial disease data. Some statistical/epidemiological background would be beneficial but is not essential.

The Advanced course relies on ideas developed in the Introductory course.

http://www.si-folkesundhed.dk/upload/abdm_sif_2010.pdf