WHO/IDF Cambridge Course on the Epidemiological and Public Health Aspects of Diabetes Mellitus

Project Objectives

Diabetes mellitus has emerged as a global public health threat in most regions of the world, putting large portions of adult populations at risk for diverse forms of morbidity. Effective public health responses to the global diabetes problem will depend upon strong surveillance and epidemiology programs to guide the selection of populations and interventions for preventive intervention and monitor public health successes. Despite the magnitude of the problem and the emerging, successful models of surveillance and prevention, there is a limited workforce trained in epidemiology and surveillance for diabetes and related chronic conditions. The Cambridge International Diabetes Training Course is a state-of-art, specialized training course in the design and execution of epidemiology covering five core areas:

• Population epidemiology and surveillance
• Etiologic epidemiology
• Clinical epidemiology
• Health services research
• Cost-effectiveness and public health decision-making

The Cambridge Diabetes Training Course brings together international experts as resident faculty and younger and less experienced researchers in an atmosphere of learning through a mixture of lectures, interactive small group sessions, problem solving scenarios, debates, and participant presentations that are critiqued by the faculty in a friendly manner. This creates a focal point for a network of researchers and professionals involved in this field and provides one of the preeminent brief training settings for professional workforce for diabetes epidemiology in the world.

TEPHINET will support the execution of the Cambridge International Diabetes Training Course by providing funding for the course venue, room and board for 40 participants and six faculty members. This will involve sub-contracting with Clare College at University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England.