I would like to announce a course on Bayesian Disease Mapping in
Epidemiology and Public Health that will be hold at Swiss Tropical and
Public Health Institute during 12 - 23 July 2010. The course is meant to be
of interest for researchers dealing with spatial data in epidemiology and
public health.

AIM OF THE COURSE
This 2-weeks course will provide a comprehensive introduction to Bayesian
spatial modeling in public health and epidemiology. Participants will be
introduced to the basics of Bayesian modeling and computation and they will
learn how to model areal and geostatistical data for identifying significant
covariates and for geographical prediction and mapping of a range of
health-related outcomes.

Participants will be also introduced in Remote Sensing and Geographical
Information Systems (GIS) in order to extract environmental predictors from
satellite sources, process satellite data and map raw data as well as
model-based predictions. The course will involve theory and computer
practical exercises in R, OpenBUGS, IDRISI, and OpenGIS.

STRUCTURE
The course includes lectures in statistical modelling from the classical and
Bayesian viewpoint, Bayesian spatial modelling, Bayesian computation and
inferences including Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation methods.
Lectures will be accompanied by practical exercises in Stata and Winbugs. In
addition, participants will get basic knowledge on GIS and Remote Sensing to
allow them extract, process and display geo-reference information. Towards
the end of the course the participants will be divided in small groups and
work on data analysis projects that cover all topics included in the course.

COURSE COORDINATOR: Penelope Vounatsou, PhD

EVALUATION AND CERTIFICATION
A question test at the end will be used to assess the individual performance
of the participants. Certificates confirming successful completion and/or
attendance will be issued.

Students will accumulate in total 3 ECTS credit point after successful
completion.

COURSE FEE
The total course fee is CHF 2’000.- and must be paid 4 weeks before the
start of the course. This sum includes the registration fee (CHF 100.-)
which is due at the moment of acceptance. In case of not attending, this
registration fee will not be reimbursed; if cancellation of attendance is
less than 4 weeks before beginning of the course an additional fee of CHF
500.– will be charged.

For more details on the course check our website at

http://www.swisstph.ch/teaching-and-training/bayesian-disease-mapping.html

Best wishes,
Laura Gosoniu

------------------------------------------------------------------
Laura Gosoniu, PostDoc
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Insitute
Epidemiology and Public Health Department
Biostatistics and Computational Sciences Unit
Socinstrasse 57, CH-4002 Basel
Tel:     +41 61 284 82 09
www.swisstph.ch

You may leave the list at any time by sending the command

SIGNOFF allstat

to [log in to unmask], leaving the subject line blank.