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Friday, 16 September 2011

Scientific breakthroughs in the study of obesity, cancer and cardiovascular disease will be the focus of a major conference to be held in Perth next week.

More than 200 health professionals including international experts are expected to attend the Australasian Epidemiological Association's 20th Annual Scientific Meeting to be held at the Burswood Convention Centre from September 19 to 21.

Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of disease and other health-related states.

Eminent Oxford-based reproductive epidemiologist Professor Valerie Beral will open the conference with a talk, "Traditional epidemiology on a large scale".  Professor Beral was one of the leaders of the Million Women Study , which was one of the first studies to establish a link between the use of hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer in women.

Professor Beral will outline how "epidemiologists of the 21st century can think big and take advantage of the new opportunities that electronic data offer".

Staff and students at The University of Western Australia are involved as organisers and speakers at the conference , which has ‘Combining Tradition with Innovation' as its theme.

Other prominent invited speakers include Professor Jos Verbeek, from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Clinical Professor Carol Bower, head of epidemiology at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Professor Vera Morgan, head of the neuropsychiatric epidemiology research unit in the School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences at UWA and James Ward, senior lecturer and head of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program at the Kirby Institute, University of NSW.

Professor Michael Alpers, John Curtin Distinguished Professor of International Health at Curtin University and Senior Scientist of the Medical Research Council Prion Unit at University College London, will deliver the Ian Prior Oration, "Back to basics: infectious disease epidemiology in the community".

Media references

Judy Katzenellenbogen (Conference Convenor)  (+61 4) 21 776 749
Maree Overall (Conference Coordinator)  (+61 4) 14 576 089
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783

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