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Topic |
Speaker: Assoc Prof Rob van Dam
Title: Nutrition, obesity and cardiovascular disease
Short Synopsis: What we eat and drink can affect our health in many ways. A lack of essential nutrients (vitamins, minerals, selected fatty acids and amino acids) can lead to severe deficiency diseases and low energy or protein intake can lead to malnutrition. Excess energy intake, 'overeating', can also lead to ill health: accumulation of too much body fat can interfere with normal metabolism and contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and certain types of cancer. In terms of public health interventions, it is increasingly realized than only educational initiatives have limited impact on improving lifestyles. An approach where healthier choices become easy or even default choices by changing the food and physical activity environmental is also warranted. This lecture will be an opportunity to engage students in a discussion on novel policies and interventions to improve dietary intakes of the population and contain the future burden of chronic diseases.
Objectives:
1. To know about the global prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases and how economic transitions are typically accompanied by epidemiological and dietary transitions.
2. To have a basic understanding about the ways that dietary intakes can affect the development of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases
3. To reflect on determinants of dietary intakes in the populations and a diversity of intervention and policy initiatives that can improve dietary intakes and reduce the incidence of chronic diseases.
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Speaker: Dr Zoe Hildon
Title: Health Services Research for Quality Improvement
Short Synopsis: Quality Improvement for Health Services is a particular sub-set of Public Health Research. The area often involves bringing together multi-disciplinary teams that can pool their skillset to explore, implement and evaluate quality improvement interventions. For instance, from formative research onwards, this topic will require talking to both patients and clinicians. For the work with healthcare professionals team members with medical backgrounds will be well suited to lead, whereas social scientists may be better versed in patient focus group and interview work. In such research it is not just people that can be the unit of analyses, but also facilities such as hospitals, or primary care centres. Statisticians will need to understand the complex issues associated with case mix adjustment for facility outcomes, and need to ensure that appropriate metrics are being used. During the current session we will examine facets of Quality Improvement initiatives for Health Services Research (HSR) using existing programmes as case studies illustrating research processes and cross-disciplinary team working.
Objectives:
1. To be able to describe the types of research related to quality improvement for health services
2. To relate these procedures to a problem that you think needs addressing in health services either in Singapore or abroad
3. To critically appraise a proposed intervention and method of evaluation
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Speaker: Assoc Prof Mikael Hartman
Title: Breast Cancer: epidemiologic methods to understand it and its risk factors
Short Synopsis:
Using breast cancer as an example, this module covers measurement of health, disease states and their risk factors in populations using routine hospital or population data and epidemiologic surveys for the prevention or early detection of disease. Principles in the design and conduct of observational epidemiologic studies and associated potential bias and confounding will be introduced. Screening for disease, in particular the principles behind this, will also be briefly covered.
Objectives:
1. To receive an overview of epidemiology and epidemiological methods to study breast cancer
2. To understand the risk factors associated with breast cancer and appreciate how this could change over time for different populations.
3. To be aware of screening for breast cancer, its options and limitations.
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Speaker: Prof Richard Coker
Title: Tuberculosis: a disease and social lens
Short Synopsis:
In 1969, the United States Surgeon General claimed that ‘‘it’s time to close the book on infectious diseases’’. It is 50 years since the first effective anti-tuberculosis drugs were developed, and 35 years since the most effective drug, rifampicin, was developed. Treatment effectiveness approaching 100% was shown through a ground-breaking series of randomized controlled trials in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in confirmation that multiple drug treatment strategies worked. Yet TB epidemiology remains grim. Almost one-third of the world is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the organism that causes TB. Almost 10 million people become ill each year with tuberculosis, and 2 million die. Yet less than half of all TB cases worldwide are properly diagnosed, and fewer than 60% of those are cured. Where the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has established itself, the news is even worse. As one of the world’s most common infections, M. tuberculosis does not cause active disease in all who are infected. Among that fraction of the infected who do fall ill, however, the majority live in poverty. This session will review how poverty and social inequalities determine, through myriad mechanisms, who will fall ill from TB and who will not. We will also review how control measures on occasion compound inequities.
Objectives:
1. To describe the global epidemiology of tuberculosis over the past 5 years
2. To describe the social drivers and public health responses to tuberculosis
3. To understand why public health is political, and how an understanding of the social aspects of tuberculosis offer wider insights into political responses to many of the most marginalized populations
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Speaker: Assoc Prof Wong Mee Lian
Title: HIV prevention education in Singapore: Challenges for the future
Short Synopsis:
This seminar will focus on a critical review of HIV treatment and prevention education in Singapore. Some of the latest developments in HIV prevention will also be discussed such as using treatment as prevention (TasP).
Objectives:
1. To have a basic understanding of public health communication on sensitive topics
2. To appreciate the need for social and behavioral interventions
3. To appreciate the social stigma and ethical issues in HIV treatment and prevention
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Speaker: Dr Mark Chen
Title: What makes communicable diseases so special?
Short Synopsis: Communicable diseases involve the interaction between host organisms and microbes, giving rise to some special properties not seen in non-communicable diseases, with interesting implications.
Objectives:
1. To gain an appreciation of the properties of infectious diseases that make them so special;
2. To understand how these properties affect the way we study, control and prevent communicable diseases
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Speaker: Assoc Prof Chia Sin Eng
Title: Work and Health
Short Synopsis: Work may have an adverse impact on the health status of an individual; the health status of an individual may also have an impact on his or her work.
Objectives:
1. An introduction on the interactions between work and health
2. Highlight various workplace hazards by categories (viz. safety, physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic and psychosocial)
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Speaker: Assoc Prof Gerald Koh
Title: Singapore's Ageing Society and Its Implications on Our Healthcare System
Short synopsis: This seminar will focus on the demographics of aging internationally and in Singapore, and its implications to public health.
Objectives:
1. To describe the global and local phenomenon of ageing
2. To understand how ageing affects public health
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Speaker: Prof Ong Choon Nam
Title: Forest Fires, Climate Change & Singapore: Challenges, Opportunities, Partnerships
Short synopsis: This lecture cum seminar will focus on the interactions on environment sustainability for Singapore and the region and how it will affect public health. Some of the recent development and topical issues such as forest fires, haze and climate change on public health will also be discussed.
Objectives:
Have a basic understanding of
1. What are the major environmental factors that will affect public health in Singapore and the region?
2. Why a sustainable environment is critical to public health?
3. What are the main challenges to maintain a sustainable environment?
4. How can we have a sustainable environment?
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Speaker: Assoc Prof Sri Chander
Title: Maternal and Child Health
Short synopsis: Investing in the health of women and children is critical for every nation’s development. The countdown to meet the global Millennium Developments goals for child and maternal mortality reduction is less than a year away—end 2015. What is the current state of progress? We will discuss the main challenges and critical program gaps encountering women, children, providers, and policymakers in some of the world's most vulnerable communities. How can the global community’s collective commitment ensure that more children live past their fifth birthday and fewer women die or suffer complications during pregnancy and childbirth? We will learn how a life course perspective can be applied to gain a critical understanding of maternal and child health issues.
Objectives:
1. To discuss the causes and trends of new born, infant, child, adolescent and maternal deaths and illnesses
2. To understand key factors (gender, behavioural, socio-cultural, economic, geographic & policy, etc) influencing their vulnerability to disease and /or death
3. To describe and critically evaluate responses to mitigate these preventable deaths and illnesses
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