Snow’s Legacy: Epidemiology Today and Tomorrow
This two-day conference provided a contemporary evaluation of Snow’s legacy and explored developments in epidemiological methods and their application in disciplines within and beyond the health sciences.
A conference gala dinner took place at the Wellcome Trust on 11 April with after-dinner speaker Jon Snow, Channel 4 newscaster.
- Watch videos from the John Snow events on our dedicated Vimeo channel
- Download a PDF of the John Snow conference brochure
Thursday 11 April 2013
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT
| 10.00 | Registration/Coffee |
| Session I: Introduction | Chair: Peter Piot, Director, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine |
| 11.00 | Welcome Peter Piot, Director, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine |
| 11.10 | Epidemiology: Broad Street to broad view Paul Fine, Professor of Communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine |
| 11.30 | The singular science of John Snow Nigel Paneth, University Distinguished Professor, Departments of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Pediatrics & Human Development, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University; John Snow Biographer |
| Lunch | |
| Session II: Epidemiology today | Chair: Shah Ebrahim, Professor of Public Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine |
| 14.00 | The causes of epidemiology Cesar Victora, President of the International Epidemiological Association; Professor of Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Brasil |
| 14.30 | Aetiology: inferring causes Ken Rothman, Distinguished Fellow, Research Triangle Institute, North Carolina |
| 15.00 | The communication of risk David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge |
| Coffee | |
| Session III: Update on John Snow themes | Chair: Ros Stanwell Smith, Honorary Secretary, John Snow Society |
| 16.00 | Cancer, Viruses and Causality in the 21st Century: When shoe-leather epidemiology meets molecular biology Patrick Moore, Professor, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh |
| 16.30 | Hygiene: the foundation of public health Val Curtis, Director, Hygiene Centre, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine |
| 17.00 | Cholera: from the Ganges to Soho to Haiti David Heymann, Chair, Public Health England; Head of Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security |
| 17.30 | “Installation” of the pump in John Snow Hall Dilys Morgan, Head, Department for Gastrointestinal, Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, Health Protection Directorate (Colindale), Public Health England |
| 19.00 | Dinner at the Wellcome Trust After dinner speaker: Jon Snow, Channel 4 newscaster Host: Jimmy Whitworth, Head of International Activities, Wellcome Trust |
Friday 12 April 2013
| 09.00 | Arrival |
| Session IV: Transmission and spread | Chair: John Edmunds, Dean of the Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine |
| 09.30 | Treating violence as an epidemic disease Gary Slutkin, Founder and Executive Director of CeaseFire, Professor of Epidemiology and International Health, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health |
| 10.00 | Epidemiology of financial networks Robert May, Professor Lord May of Oxford, UK Government Chief Scientific Advisor 1995 – 2000 |
| Coffee | |
| Session V: Intervention | Chair: Peter Smith, Professor of Tropical Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine |
| 11.00 | From burden to action: implementing trials of mental health interventions Vikram Patel, Professor of International Mental Health and, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine |
| 11.30 | Interpreting large-scale randomised evidence Richard Peto, Co-Director, Clinical Trials Service Unit, University of Oxford |
| 12.00 | So it actually works – what now? Ian Roberts, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine |
| Lunch | |
| Session VI: Epidemiology beyond health | Chair: Richard Smith, Dean of the Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine |
| 14.00 | Epidemiology, crime and criminality Richard Wortley, Head, UCL Department of Security and Crime Science; Director Jill Dando Institute, University College London |
| 14.30 | Opportunities and challenges of trials in education research Carole Torgerson, Chair in Education, School of Education, Durham University |
| 15.00 | Epidemiology, randomized trials, and the search for what works in economic development Angus Deaton, Professor of International Affairs, and Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Princeton |
| Coffee | |
| Session VII: Access to electronic databases – epidemiology goes digital – Panel and debate | Chair: Jon Snow, Journalist, Channel 4 News |
| 16.00 | The argument for greater access Mark Walport, Director Wellcome Trust, 2003 – 2012; UK Government Chief Scientific Advisor 2012 - |
| 16.15 | The legal and ethical perspective Jonathan Montgomery, Chair of Nuffield Council on Bioethics, Professor in Heath Care Law, Southampton Law School |
| 16.30 | Clinical perspective Jane Anderson, Director, Centre for the Study of Sexual Health and HIV, Homerton Hospital, London |
| 16.45 | Audience participation |
| 17.30 | Lancet announcement Richard Horton, Editor, Lancet |
| 18.13 | Closure |
| 18.58 | John Snow Pub |
These meetings are hosted by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Wellcome Trust, in collaboration with the International Epidemiological Association, the John Snow Society and the Centre for History in Public Health.
Image: Map showing deaths from cholera in Broad Street, Golden Square and the surrounding area from 19 August – 30 September 1854. From John Snow’s ‘On the mode of communication of cholera’ (2nd edition, 1855). Credit: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Archive.
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT