RUHR School

Welcome to the RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology

The RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology is an annual summer school in modern epidemiology and is the continuation of the Händel School of Modern Epidemiology, which was initiated by Prof. Andreas Stang, MPH at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in 2005. From 2005 to 2013, international lecturers were recruited for the School in Halle: Kenneth J. Rothman (GMS Med Inform Biom Epidemiol 2005;1(3):Doc16[m1] ), Albert Hofman, Alexander Walker, Mimi Zeiger, Noel Weiss, John P.A. Ioannidis, Olli Miettinen, and Tyler VanderWeele.

Since 2014, Prof. Stang has been at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany and has therefore continued the Händel School of Modern Epidemiology at the University of Duisburg-Essen under the name RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology. The aim of the School is to present up-to-date modern epidemiology by international lecturers. The term „Modern Epidemiology“ in the name of the School is used to indicate the proximity to the epidemiological school of thought of Kenneth J. Rothman, Sander Greenland and Timothy Lash. The name „RUHR“ comes from the fact that the city of Essen has the Ruhr River flowing through it.

The RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology offers an appropriate mix of lectures, paper-based exercises, and group work. Depending on the particular topic of the School, computer labs are also organized.

Credit points may be transferred in coordination with master’s or doctoral programs. The School is usually certified by the regional state medical association so that physicians can receive continuing education credits.

Prof. Dr. med. Andreas Stang, MPH

RUHR School 2024

The 6^th RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology will take place from July 2-5, 2024, online, on the topic „Introduction to Cancer Epidemiology“. Prof. Andreas Stang, MD, MPH, Director of the Institute of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Duisburg-Essen and Medical Director of the North Rhine-Westphalia State Cancer Registry is the lecturer oft this event. The course will take place on four afternoons and will include lectures on the following topics:

Fundamentals of cancer
Cancer classification
Cancer occurence
Cancer registration
Cancer Screening

Flyer

RUHR School 2024

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Prof. Dr. Matthew Fox

RUHR School 2023

The 5th RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology will take place from 01.08.2023 – 04.08.2023 in Essen, on the topic „Quantitative Bias Analysis“. Prof. Dr. Matthew Fox from the Departments of Epidemiology and Global Health at Boston University in the USA could be won as lecturer for the event. The course will take place on four afternoons and will include lectures and exercises on the following topics:

Recognize the types of bias in epidemiologic studies that are amenable to quantitative bias analysis
Conduct simple, multidimensional and probabilistic bias analyses using summary data in Microsoft Excel™ and interpret the output
Conduct basic probabilistic bias analysis in Microsoft Excel™ using a record level dataset and interpret the results
Demonstrate a critical understanding of the assumptions underlying each approach to quantitative bias analysis
Distinguish between probability distributions for use in quantitative bias analysis and implement each
Discuss the strengths and limitations of each approach as applied to real datasets

Flyer

RUHR School 2023

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Prof. Dr. Ashley I Naimi

RUHR School 2022

The 4th RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology will take place from 21.06.2022 – 24.06.2022, online due to corona, on the topic „Introduction to Machine Learning and Causal Inference“. Prof. Dr. Ashley I Naimi from the Department of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University in the USA could be won as lecturer for the event. The course will take place on four afternoons and will include lectures and exercises on the following topics:

Introduction to causal inference
Review of basic regression methods
G Methods and Double Robust Methods
- G computation
- IP-weighting
- Double Robust Estimation
Introduction to Machine Learning
- Neural Networks
- Gradient Boosting
- Random Forest
- Support Vector Machines
- Stacked Generalization (Super Learner)

Flyer

RUHR School 2022

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RUHR School 2021

Due to Corona, we have to postpone the 4th RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology for another year, to June 20 – June 23, 2022.

RUHR School 2020

Due to Corona, we have to postpone this year’s 4th RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology by one year, to August 25 – 27, 2021. Thankfully, Prof. Naimi has agreed to be available for the same topic next year.

RUHR School 2019

The 3rd RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology took place from July 9^th to July 11^th in Essen. Prof. Dr. Jay S. Kaufman from the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health from McGill University (Canada) taught on „Causal Inference in Epidemiology“. The three-day event included lectures and exercises on the following course contents:

Definition, interpretation and limitations of epidemiologic effect measures
Bias, confounding
Causal models
The relation between the g-formula and the DAG
Econometric strategies for identification of causal effects

Press releases

Medizinische Fakultät Universität Duisburg-Essen vom 11.07.2019
Erfolgreicher Abschluss der dritten RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology

MEDECON Ruhr vom 09.07.2019
3rd RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology

Flyer

RUHR School 2019

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RUHR School 2018

The 2^nd RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology took place from July 11^th to July 13^th in Essen and focused on the topic of “Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis”. In exciting lectures and exercises Prof. Charles Poole, MPH, from the Department of Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina (USA) gave deeper insights into:

• Forms of summarizing individual studies
• Characteristics of systematic reviews, meta-analyses, pooled reanalysis and prospectively planned meta-analyses
• Requirements for compiling a review/meta-analysis (a priori designed study protocol)
• Statistics tools
A total of 60 national and international students and scientists attended the 2nd RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology.

Press releases

Ebm-Netzwerk.de
2. RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology/Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Medecon.ruhr
2nd RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology/Wissenschaftliche Studien interdisziplinär analysieren

Essen.de vom 07.05.2018
Anmeldung zur 2nd RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology startet: Wissenschaftliche Studien interdisziplinär analysieren

Uni-due.de vom 13.07.2018
Erfolgreicher Abschluss der 2nd RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology

Wissenschaftsstadt-essen.de vom 13.07.2018
Erfolgreicher Abschluss der 2nd RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology

Flyer

RUHR School 2018

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Flyer

RUHR School 2018

PDF-Dokument, 324 kBLaden

RUHR School 2017

The 1^st RUHR School of Modern Epidemiology took place from August 30^th to September 1^st in Essen and focused on the topic of “Principles of Cancer Epidemiology”. At the three-day event Prof. Dr. med. Andreas Stang, MPH, head of the Center of Clinical Epidemiology at the University Hospital in Essen, gave intriguing lectures and led discussions on: