AUSTRALASIAN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
2025 Scientific Meeting
Embracing change: epidemiological methods for the future
Wednesday 16 to Friday 18 July 2025
Hotel Grand Chancellor Hobart
#AEA2025
PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP - CONTEMPORARY EPIDEMIOLOGY COURSE
Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 July, Medical Precinct, UTAS, Hobart ​
Description and Intended Audience:
This short course covers the basics to more advanced concepts in contemporary epidemiology, including sources of error, directed acyclic graphs, counterfactual approaches including potential outcomes and target trials, and an overview of the range of study designs and methods to reduce sources of error (especially confounding). We will dabble a little in quantitative bias analysis (QBA) – but this year’s AEA Congress has a short course on QBA from Professor Matt Fox the day after our two-day course that we recommend people consider (and our course will equip you well for). Our Contemporary Epidemiology short course is not a course where you will become expert in a couple of methods; rather, it will give you an overview of the menu of options, and the skills necessary to work through latest methods and academic papers, and think critically about what to advise policy makers. In nearly two decades of running this course, we have found that everyone benefits – people new to epidemiology get a few rungs up the ladder, and people wanting a refresher get a few more rungs up the ladder on contemporary approaches to epidemiology. The course is accordingly targeted at students and anyone wanting a ‘refresher’. ​​​​
Convenors and Lecturers
Pre-COVID, this course was run annually by Professors Tony Blakely and John Lynch; now Assoc Prof Zoe Aitken is joining Tony to deliver this short course.
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Associate Professor Zoe Aitken is a Principal Research Fellow in Social Epidemiology, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. Zoe is an ARC Industry Laureate. She has expertise in contemporary methods for confounder adjustment and has extensive experience in applying epidemiological approaches to health inequalities research. Zoe has a clear and easily understandable style when delivering lectures and facilitating class discussions.
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​Professor Tony Blakely is the Unit Head of the Population Interventions Unit and Scalable Health Intervention Evaluation program (SHINE), and Professorial Fellow in Epidemiology, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. Tony holds an NHMRC Investigator Grant. Tony is well known for his engaging teaching style, and wide knowledge of epidemiology and public health more generally. Tony’s research covers a wide breadth of public health and epidemiology – basically, any preventive interventions that have the potential to improve public health, reduce health inequalities and perhaps also have favourable economic outcomes. Tony was a leading advisor and commentator on COVID-19 policy response options during the pandemic (22,000 media mentions), and Chaired Phase 1 of the NZ Royal Commission on COVID-19.