CIENCIASMEDICASNEWS: Transforming Epidemiology for 21st Century Medicine and Public Health

Authors' Affiliations: ¹Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, ²Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, and ³Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, and ⁴Division of Cardiovascular Sciences, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland; ⁵Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; ⁶Stanford Prevention Research Center, Department of Medicine, Department of Health Research and Policy, Stanford University School of Medicine, and Department of Statistics, Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford, California; ⁷Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas; ⁸Division of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital; ⁹Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School; ¹⁰Department of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health; ¹¹Slone Epidemiology Center, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts; ¹²Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente, Portland, Oregon; ¹³Center for Genomic Medicine, Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina; ¹⁴International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France; ¹⁵Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California; ¹⁶Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics and Global Health, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, Illinois; ¹⁷Office of the Director, Moffit Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida; ¹⁸Departments of Epidemiology and Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; ¹⁹Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; ²⁰Computational Sciences and Engineering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and ²¹Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York

Corresponding Author:
Muin J. Khoury, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30333. Phone: 404-498-0001; Fax: 404-498-0140; E-mail: muk1@CDC.GOV

Abstract

In 2012, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) engaged the scientific community to provide a vision for cancer epidemiology in the 21st century. Eight overarching thematic recommendations, with proposed corresponding actions for consideration by funding agencies, professional societies, and the research community emerged from the collective intellectual discourse. The themes are (i) extending the reach of epidemiology beyond discovery and etiologic research to include multilevel analysis, intervention evaluation, implementation, and outcomes research; (ii) transforming the practice of epidemiology by moving toward more access and sharing of protocols, data, metadata, and specimens to foster collaboration, to ensure reproducibility and replication, and accelerate translation; (iii) expanding cohort studies to collect exposure, clinical, and other information across the life course and examining multiple health-related endpoints; (iv) developing and validating reliable methods and technologies to quantify exposures and outcomes on a massive scale, and to assess concomitantly the role of multiple factors in complex diseases; (v) integrating “big data” science into the practice of epidemiology; (vi) expanding knowledge integration to drive research, policy, and practice; (vii) transforming training of 21st century epidemiologists to address interdisciplinary and translational research; and (viii) optimizing the use of resources and infrastructure for epidemiologic studies. These recommendations can transform cancer epidemiology and the field of epidemiology, in general, by enhancing transparency, interdisciplinary collaboration, and strategic applications of new technologies. They should lay a strong scientific foundation for accelerated translation of scientific discoveries into individual and population health benefits. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 22(4); 508–16. ©2013 AACR.

Footnotes

Note from the Editor-in-Chief: This is one in a series of commentaries that have arisen from an initiative of the National Cancer Institute to advance epidemiological science in the 21st century.