Data-Driven Prevention Policy in Public Health

Ready for the public health challenges of the future? Do you want to learn the value of observational data for public health policy during hands on research sessions? Interested to learn this from public health experts from three different countries? Then do not hesitate and apply for this unique interdisciplinary two-week summer school in public health in which we cross the national borders!

Health systems around the world are each finding their own way to deal with the public health challenges of the future; think of ageing, obesity, alcohol and drug abuse, sedentary life style and health illiteracy. Moreover, implementing prevention and treatment programmes targeted at these public health threats – while taking into account the sustainability and affordability of the healthcare systems – is probably the biggest public health challenge for society! Remarkably, the systems for prevention, health and chronic care that have been implemented show wide variation in actual services provided as well as cost incurred. These differences might partly explain the differences in burden of disease observed as well as variation in longevity. What is driving the health inequalities across the different demographic levels? How can we evaluate policies targeted at reducing these inequalities?

In this summer school researchers in public health from all over the world will become familiar with the steps of the Data-Driven Prevention Cycle (D2PC). We start in the field to discuss the case studies of the partners involved and from there we go through all steps of policy evaluation using observational data. Novel techniques in applied econometrics will be used to not only deliver descriptive results, but to strive to empirical models through which health inference may be attained. As such, we can formulate the important policy indicators for reducinginequalities across the different demographic levels in society.