Ten Day International Teaching Seminar on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention

Every day we started at 8.30 and had two lectures, one in epidemiology and one in statistics, continued with group exercises. After lunch we had a little free time/social programme followed with two more lectures. During the second week, instead of group exercises we had to develop a study protocol to answer a research question whether sedentary behavior is a cardiovascular risk factor independently of physical activity. Each of the four groups was given a study design to work with, and my group got a randomized control trial. That was really interesting and useful experience. At the end of the seminar fellows presented their protocols to the faculty.

Teachers and lecturers were professors from the University of Cambridge School of Medicine, UK; Imperial College School of Medicine at St. Mary’s University of London, UK; University of North Carolina, USA; University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA; North Western University, Chicago, USA; Hubert Department of Global Health Emory University, Atlanta, USA; Centre for Chronic Disease Control (CCDC), India. All of them were just excellent, with a lot of knowledge and practice in the field, very enthusiastic and devoted to their work.

We had a lot of interesting discussions with the teachers and other fellows outside the lecture hours, and during one of such discussions I got an idea for my third article.

The place where we stayed was very special: a nice spa resort, beautiful wild nature and spicy Indian cuisine. During the weekend we went to an elephant camp, visited several temples. This year the 47th seminar will be held in Fiji, and I recommend it for all the researchers and medical doctors who work within cardiovascular epidemiology.