*Announcing a Two-Day Course Sequence:*

*Introduction to Bayesian Disease Mapping (IBDM)*

*Advanced Bayesian Disease Mapping (ABDM)*

**The first offering of both Introductory and Advanced BDM courses in
the UK**

April 4th -- 5th and 7th -- 8th 2011

University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

**Course content**

These courses are designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to

the area of Bayesian disease mapping in applications to Public Health

and Epidemiology: The IBDM course will run on April 4^th -- 5^th and the

ABDM course will run on April 7^th -- 8th 2011.

The IBDM two-day course consists of sessions dealing with:

· 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

· 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.

The ABDM course consists of:

· Spatial models and simple variants: convolution, proper CAR,

full MVN

· Special application: Case event modelling

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. CPO and pseudo

Bayes factor

· Multiple disease analysis

· Basic Space-Time models: Bernardinelli, Knorr-Held, Waller; seasonal

effects

· Space-Time Kalman-filtering

· Clustering in ST data; surveillance and Infectious disease models

This course is designed for those who want to cover advanced BDM
methods, and

includes advanced use of WinBUGS. 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 Ohio respiratory cancer.

*The speaker*

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 the IBDM course. A copy of

the book is included in the course fee for that course only.

*Who should attend*

The courses are intended for epidemiologists and public health workers

who need to analyse geographical disease incidence. In addition, the

courses 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.

*Why attend*

Participants will gain an in-depth understanding of the basic issues,

methods and techniques used in the analysis of spatial health data using

a Bayesian approach. They will gain insight into the detailed analysis

of practical problems in risk estimation and cluster detection. The

course is presented by a leading researcher in the field of disease

mapping and spatial epidemiology.

*course fees*

IBDM Two-day Course -- 450 GBP

Two-day course fee includes comprehensive course notes, lunch,

refreshments and a copy of /Bayesian Disease Mapping: Hierarchical

Modeling in Spatial Epidemiology,/ Lawson, A. B., (2009), CRC press, New

York.

ABDM Two-day Course -- 425GBP

Two-day course fee includes comprehensive course notes, lunch, and

refreshments.

Joint booking of both courses in the sequence is discounted to 720GBP and

with an academic/charity rate of 640 GBP

Attendees must bring a laptop with R and WinBUGS 1.4.3 software

preloaded*. Datasets will be provided. R and WinBUGS software can be

downloaded from the following websites: http://cran.wustl.edu

<http://cran.wustl.edu <http://cran.wustl.edu/>/> and/or
www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/bugs

<http://www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/bugs>

*VENUE*

The courses will take place at the Medical School of the University of
Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland.

*REGISTRATION INFORMATION*

The form and further course information is available from

http://www.lifelong.ed.ac.uk/bdm/


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