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1.
Old epidemiologists never die... they just get very retrospective.
2.
Epidemiologists... are variable lovers.
3.
"There is something fascinating about science. One gets such
wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment
of fact." Mark Twain from Life on the Mississippi
4.
Old epidemiologists never die... they just lose their external
validity.
5.
THE FOUR PREMISES OF PUBLIC HEALTH
·
The philosophy of public health and social justice.
·
The primary goal of public health is to reduce or eliminate
differences in mortality and morbidity between populations.
·
The science on which public health decisions are based is
epidemiology, or the study of the distribution of diseases, health
problems, or risk factors in the population and action taken to
alleviate those problems. The science of demography augments
epidemiology and studying population problems.
William Foege
6.
Old epidemiologists never die... they just become totally
confounded.
7.
"Infant Mortality is the most sensitive index we possess of social
welfare and sanitary administration." From A. Newsholme, London,
1910
8.
Epidemiology is more than skin deep.
9.
Goya Turns Lead Poisoning to Good Account:
in 1792, Goya experienced a sudden overwhelming assault on his
nervous system. He suffered from dizziness, mental confusion,
impaired hearing and speech, tinnitus, and partial blindness. He
had been in daily contact with the toxic lead compound, sometimes
grinding it, and inhaling its fumes. Ramazzini had observed that
painters suffer from palsy of the limbs, cachexia, blackened
teeth, unhealthy complexions, melancholia, and the loss of the
sense of smell. He traced the cause to the red and white lead and
mercury in cinnabar. Goya's palette also included toxic lead
chromate and mercury-based pigments. After many months, Goya
recovered, and a new Goya emerged. After the time of his illness,
he painted charming portraits and the pastoral scenes. Now the
quote ‘humane and better social observer, the scorching and
despairing delineate her of ice and cruelty’ took over."
Reproduced with permission of McGraw-Hill, Inc., from The
Illustrated Treasury of Medical Curiosa by Art Newman,
copyright 1988
10.
Old epidemiologists never die... they just suffer from and age
effect.
11.
Research Doublespeak:
"More research is necessary to clarify these results" means "What
does it all mean?" - Contributed by David Lawrence
12.
A Lesson in Epidemiology from Casanova:
Surgeon: I have made a good deal of money, and it is to
you, Captain-God bless you!- That I am indebted for my personal
comforts. Captain: How so? Surgeon: In this way,
Captain. You had a connection with Don Jerome's housekeeper, and
he left her. When you went away with a certain souvenir which she
communicated to a certain friend of hers, who, in perfect good
faith, made a present to his wife. This lady did not wish, I
suppose to be selfish and the gave her souvenir to a libertine,
who in turn was so generous with it, that within less than a
month, I had about fifty clients.” Reproduced with permission of
McGraw-Hill Inc. from The Illustrated Treasury of Medical
Curiosa by Art Newman, Copyright 1988
13.
Epidemiologists... prefer close associations.
14.
"Looking back now on the long path my life has followed, on the
lives of my peers and colleagues, and on the briefer ones of the
young recruits who have worked with us, I have become persuaded
that, in scientific research, neither the degree of one's
intelligence nor the ability to carry one's tasks with
thoroughness and precision are factors essential to personal
success and fulfillment. More important for the attaining of both
ends are total dedication and the tendency to underestimate
difficulties, which cause one to tackle problems that other, more
critical and acute persons instead opt to avoid." R. Levi-Montalcini,
In Praise of Imperfection - Contributed by James Marks
15.
Nobody outmatches an epidemiologist!
16.
"The crucial issue is the knowledge-based health system. The
mission of NEBT is to mobilize resources to generate relevant or
essential knowledge to be used in policy formulation, planning,
implementation, and evaluation of health systems." Prawase Wasi,
Chairman, National Epidemiology Board of Thailand (NEBT)
17.
This song was apparently sung after the annual dinner of the
Australian and New Zealand equivalent to the Society for Social
Medicine. One would need several ’pints’ on board to fit into
Grainger's music. (Tune: "English Country Garden," Grainger)
We are epidemiologists, and what do we measure?
Age, Sex, Race and Social Class
Mortality, morbidity at home, work, and leisure
by sex, race and social class
What is Social Class, you say?
How much school, or how much pay -
or where you live, where you work or where you play,
or what others say you are, and what you are you will STAY
with your Age, Sex, Race and Social Class.
We are epidemiologists, we study populations
and their health-related states and the prevalence.
We register and classify, recount the health events
and we calculate their incidence.
"X-bar," "s," "t," we analyze, rates and risks we standardize,
over R-squared and Chi-squared and "p" we agonize,
and we seriously consider "alpha," "beta," sample size
and statistical results in the light of common sense.
We are epidemiologists, we come before commissions
to support each health initiative throughout the commonwealth.
We write papers for enquiries, and compile detailed submissions
to apply for project funds, and to study Public Health -
Risk factors- fats and smoke and son,
Case-controls are properly done
prospective cohort studies, any other way we can -
We are bold and we’re determined to woman and a man
to improve the nation's health, in the open or BY STEALTH.
We are epidemiologists, the huge data-sets we get
in these modern times we computerize.
Multivariate techniques are the norms that we set
as we model our hypotheses, and then analyze.
"Hardware first" - the cry is clear,
then "Software, user-friendly, please"
Mainframes and Networks and Modems and PC’s -
but "Garbage in Garbage out" is the phrase we all fear
as we struggle with statistics, seeking HEALTH as the prize.
REPEAT FIRST STANZA
18.
IEA Anthem (or "Epidemiology Together") tune: "An English Old
Country Garden," Granger
How many variables keep us in the job?
Age, Sex, Race and Social Class.
How do they try to break us down?
Age, Sex, Race and Social Class.
Multiple Regre -e –ssion
Chi- Square, correlation
P less than .001-
Unbiased and uncontrolled, no deviation here
We will not be compounded or broken down.
How many ladders can we climb?
MB, MS, PhD
To what heights can be aspire?
Chairman, Dean, Vice Chancellor.
Academic masturbation,
intellectual flagellation
these are among the games we play –
Theories and hypotheses, and learned
papers we produce
All on Age, Sex, Race and Social Class
19.
The Mystery Deepens: NOTE:
We thought it was a little strange that these two songs were so
much alike. We wrote to several people involved with IEA and with
the Australasian Epidemiology Association to confirm that it did
exist, and no one had heard of the song! Here are few excerpts
from a letter return to us by one of our New Zealand informants:
"... I can't find anyone who knows of the song, or
have signed it. However, I'm not sure if anyone would admit to
it if they had. They would also seem to be a problem with recall
bias and that anyone who was drunk enough to sing the song would
probably be too drunk to remember doing so... my own feeling is
that the AEA probably stole (sorry, adapted) the song from the IEA.
It is unlikely that anyone over here would've written it, since it
contains complicated terms such as "alpha and beta".
Actually, I have attended the last two IEA meetings and I'm sure
that we didn't sing anything there either..."
20.
"Men die of the diseases which they have studied most... it's as
if the morbid condition was an evil creature which, when it found
itself closely hunted, flew at the throat of its pursuer." - Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle from Round the Red Lamp, "the Surgeon Talks"
21.
EXCITE AN EPIDEMIOLOGIST… cause an effect.
22.
: "I'm on a Committee" (sung to the tune of Suite Little
Buttercup" in H.M.S. Pinafore)
Oh give me your pity!
I'm on a committee,
which means that from morning to night
We attend and amend,
And contend and defend
Without a conclusion in sight.
We confer and concur,
We defer and demur
And reiterate all of our thoughts.
We revise the agenda
With frequent addenda
And consider a load of reports
We compose and propose,
We suppose and oppose
And the points of procedure are fun;
But though various notions
Are brought up as motions
There's terribly little gets done.
We resolve and absolve
But we never dissolve,
Since it's out of the question for us
To bring our committee
To end like this ditty
Which stops with a period - thus.
Leslie Lipson
23.
Epidemiologists...
prefer causal relationships.
24.
If you have the TIME and PLACE, I'm the PERSON.
25.
A Bit of Poetry:
Death is all too familiar to the epidemiologist who studies it
primarily as an abstract quantitative concept. Occasionally, death
announces its presence closer to home, when a friend, colleague,
or family member passes away. Just such an event - the death of
Dr. Ralph Patrick, a professor of epidemiology at UNC/Chapel Hill
- created the right combination of whatever it takes to put
together the following poem, published in The Pharos 1986;
49:43.
Lament for an Epidemiologist
We both wondered
just how science progresses
in the scheme of things
Occasional conversation
heaped with unbridled conjecture
and a few externa laced with experience
I sat, barely listening
always questioning
offering hope without proof
and guesses against experience
He sat, always listening
answering problems with others
and those with their begotten
It's evolution, he'd say
(with a twinkle in his eye)
And now he's gone
but the flame is kindled,
‘tis the scheme of things.
Douglas Weed
26.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die...
they are just less likely to respond.
27.
Got no time for wild polemics - I'm hung up on epidemics.
28.
"Our main business of life is not to see what lies dimly at a
distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand." - Thomas Carlyle
(a favorite quote of Sir William Ostler)
29.
On the Link between Ale and Epidemiology:
"... There is a brewery in Broad Street, near to the pump, and on
perceiving that no brewer’s men were registered as having died of
cholera, I called on Mr. Huggins, the proprietor. He informed me
that they were above seventy workmen employed in the brewery, and
that none of them have suffered from cholera - at least in a
severe form - only two having been indisposed, and that not
seriously, at the time the disease prevailed. The men were allowed
a certain amount of malt liquor, and Mr. Huggins believes they do
not drink water at all; and he is quite certain that the workmen
never obtain water from the pump in the street. There is a deep
well in the brewery, in addition to the New River water..."
Snow on Cholera, Cambridge, Harvard University
Press, 1949
30.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die...
they just fulfill their life expectancy.
31.
"When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it
in numbers, you know something about it. But when you cannot -
your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind." - Lord
Kelvin
32.
"Of all cooperative enterprises, public health is the most
important and gives the greatest returns." William J. Mayo, 1919
33.
"Living is not the good, but living well. The wise man therefore
lives as long as he should, not as long as he can. He will observe
where he is to live, with whom, how, and what he is to do. He will
always think of life in terms of quality, not quantity." - Seneca
34.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die...
their data just get soft.
35.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die...
they just don't count anymore.
36.
Research Doublespeak:
"These results will be reported at a later date" means "I might
get around to this sometime" - contributed by David Lawrence
37.
It takes on significance... with an epidemiologist.
38.
Epidemiologists...
make better cohorts.
39.
Epidemiologists
do it... all the TIME EVERYWHERE with EVERYBODY.
40.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die...
they just assume new configurations.
41.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die...
they just reach infinite significance.
42.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die...
they simply cross-over.
43.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die...
it's an epidemiologic fallacy.
44.
WHOWHATWHENWHEREWHYHOW spells Epidemiology!
45.
Research Doublespeak:
"The results were significant using Doublespeak’s Correction to
this contest" means "Everything looked random using conventional
tests" - contributed by David Lawrence
46.
Diseases of Learned Men
- Excerpts from Diseases of Tradesmen, 1700
Bernardo Ramazzini is arguably the father of
occupational medicine and therefore the grandfather of
occupational epidemiology. His book Diseases of Tradesman
published in 1700 feature descriptions of illnesses associated
with particular occupations. Of course, epidemiologists were not
included, but "learned men" - professors, doctors, and the
mathematicians - were represented, and, in Ramazzini’s mind,
subject to a variety of maladies. Many of today's epidemiologists
fall into one of these three categories. Here are a few quotes:
Professors: "...
all through the winter and spring they lecture from their
platforms till they are hoarse, trying to instruct young students,
and at the end of the season they demonstrate by their uneasy and
asthmatic condition what serious ailments of the chest can be
caused by such a strain on the voice."
Doctors: "Doctors,
however, fare much better; they are not attacked by so many
diseases, and when they do fall ill, they set it down to running
about so much and not to a sedentary life or too much standing...
This I could not ascribe to any particular precautions on their
part, but rather to their taking a good deal of exercise and to
their cheerful frame of mind when they go home with their pockets
full of fees."
Mathematicians (Statisticians):
"Mathematicians have to ponder and demonstrate the most abstruse
problems far removed from material existence, and to this end the
mind must be kept detached from the senses and have hardly any
dealings with the body; hence they are nearly all dull, listless,
lethargic, and never quite at home in the ordinary affairs of
men."
47.
"One of the problems with doing observational research on humans,
rather than a controlled trial, is that you don't always come up
with the same answers,... I'm old enough not to trust any single
study, not even my own." - George Comstock, New York Times,
November 18, 1990
48.
Research Doublespeak:
"One possible explanation for the test results is..." means "I had
to think a long time to come up with even one." - contributed by
David Lawrence
49.
"We are always dealing with dirty data. The trick is to do it with
a clean mind." - Michael Gregg
50.
Cancer Causes Epidemiology
51.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die...
they just redefine their parameters.
52.
Epidemiologists...rate!
53.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die...
they just add to the sum of squares.
54.
Research Doublespeak:
"Three of the samples were chosen for detailed study" means "The
results on the others didn't make sense and were ignored" -
contributed by David Lawrence
55.
On Collective Terms...
"A group of epidemiologists? How about a term in honor of our past
- a flurry of epidemiologists. The honor, of course, would
be to Dr. Snow. A larger group would of course be a ’blizzard’ and
a small group would just be a couple of ‘flakes’. - James W.
Justice, M.D.
56.
Epidemiologists...
know all the methods
57.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die...
they’re afraid it causes bladder cancer
58.
"It is more important to be doing the right things than to be
doing things right." - Peter Drucker
59.
Epi Haiku:
Natural causes out of vogue
Smoke or Salt or Sloth
Have grave results.
- Contributed by Dan Cherkin
60.
Research Doublespeak:
"Typical results are shown" means "The best results are shown"
- contributed by David Lawrence
61.
Epidemiologists...
avoids spurious relationships.
62.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die...
they can't agree on a cause of death.
63.
Research Doublespeak:
""While it is not impossible to provide definite answers to these
questions" means "The experiment didn't work out, but I figured I
could get publicity out of it." - contributed by David Lawrence
64.
Epidemiologists...
are well-adjusted
65.
"The only way to keep your health is eat what you don't want,
drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not." - Mark
Twain
66.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they have herd immunity.
67.
Epidemiologists...
do it without bias.
68.
Epi’s Answers
Epi’s claim
To lasting fame
Will come with
Answers gained
Ethically
Not with Stealth
Answers for
Prevention, cure
And lasting Health
- B Ladene Larsen
69.
Epidemiologists...
always need analysis.
70.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they’re just under-reported
71.
Respond...
to an Epidemiologist.
72.
Epidemiologists...
do it with informed consent (confidentiality guaranteed).
73.
"The death rate is a fact; anything beyond this is an inference."
- William Farr
74.
Nobody outmatches my dad the epidemiologist!
75.
No one counts like my wife the epidemiologist!
76.
Tell me your attributes and I'll tell you your chances.
77.
Get your case under control with an epidemiologist.
78.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…they
just reach their confidence limits.
79.
"The true aim of medicine is not to make men virtuous; it is to
safeguard and rescue them from the consequences of their vices."
H.L. Mencken
80.
Epidemiologists...
make a significant difference.
81.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just get tired of hearing AIDS.
82.
Research Doublespeak:
"It is generally believed that..." means "A couple of other guys
think so too". - contributed by David Lawrence
83.
"The health of the people is really the foundation upon which all
their happiness and all their powers as a state depend." -
Benjamin Disraeli
84.
"Hunches and intuitive impressions are essential for getting the
work started, but it is only through the quality of the numbers at
the end that the truth can be told." - Lewis Thomas, Biostatistics
and Medicine
85.
Epidemiologists...Count!
86.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just plot new peaks.
87.
Research Doublespeak:
"Of great theoretical and practical importance" means "It is
interesting to me."
88.
Epidemiologists...
do it with reliability.
89.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just ride off into the subset.
90.
"What gets measured gets done." - Mason Haire, In Search of
Excellence
91.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just risk being relatively odd.
92.
Epidemiologists…
do it with populations.
93.
"It is a truth certain that when it is not in our power to
determine what is true we ought to follow what is most probable."
- Descartes
94.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
it's too risky.
95.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…they
just reinterpret temporal relationships.
96.
Epidemiologists need infection too!
97.
Epidemiologists…
do it randomly.
98.
Epi Haiku:
p.i. slain by sharp
rebuke
death certificate
reads,
"Grants Funds
Denied."
Dan Cherkin
99.
Epidemiologists...
do it with 95% confidence
100.
"What gets measured gets done." - Mason Haire, In Search of
Excellence
101.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
until their names appear in 80 column obituaries.
102.
Research Doublespeak:
"The most reliable values are those of Jones" means "He was a
student of mine" - contributed by David Lawrence
103.
Epidemiologists...
are matchmakers.
104.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just exceed the highest age stratum.
105.
"Some people are so sensitive they feel snubbed if an epidemic
overlooks them." - Frank (Kin) Hubbard (1868-1930)
106.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just get ring around the cholera.
107.
"At the heart of the efforts to develop a code of ethics for
epidemiologists is the need to determine our allegiances. Do these
allegiances have priorities? To the truth? To the social welfare?
To the employer? What is epidemiology all about?" - Albert Jonsen,
IEF Conference on Ethics in Epidemiology, 1989
108.
"The function of protecting and developing health must rank even
above that of restoring it when it is impaired." - Hippocrates
109.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
but their responses are variable.
110.
"Of all the means of arriving at truth, the most simple, and at
the same time the most certain, is abstract reasoning... (and)
there is one class of subjects which forms, in a more especial
manner, the province of abstract reasoning. I mean number –
magnitude - quantity." - William A. Guy, 1839
111.
"... epidemiology is essentially an inductive science, concerned
not merely with describing the distribution of disease, but
equally or more with fitting it into a consistent philosophy." -
Wade Hampton Frost, 1920’s
112.
"Statistics are curious things. They afford one of the few
examples in which the use, or abuse, of mathematical methods tends
to induce a strong emotional reaction in non-mathematical minds.
This is because statisticians apply, to problems in which we are
interested, a technique which we do not understand. It is
exasperating, when we have studied a problem by methods that we
have spent laborious years mastering, to find our conclusions
questioned, and perhaps refuted, by someone who could not have
made the observations himself. It requires more equanimity than
most of us possess to acknowledge that the fault is in ourselves."
- Sir Austin Bradford Hill, Lancet, 1937
113.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they are just distributed randomly.
114.
"This seems to be one of the many cases in which the admitted
accuracy of mathematical processes is allowed to throw a wholly
inadmissible appearance of authority over the results obtained by
them... As the grandest mill in the world will not extract wheat
flour from peascods, so pages of formulas will not get a different
result out of loose data." – T.H. Huxley, 1869
115.
"Superior doctors prevent the
disease,
Mediocre doctors
treat the disease before evident,
Inferior doctors
treat the full-blown disease.“ – Huang Dee Nai-Ching, (2600
BC, First Chinese Medical Text)
116.
Research Doublespeak:
"It is clear that much additional work will be required before a
complete understanding..." means "I don't understand it" -
contributed by David Lawrence
117.
Epidemiologists...
have nice figures.
118.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just become lost to follow-up.
119.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just count less.
120.
Epidemiologists...
have the odds.
121.
Research Doublespeak:
""Thanks are due to Joe Glotz for assistance with experiments and
to John Doe for valuable discussion" means "Glotz did the work and
Doe explained to me what it meant." - Contributed by David
Lawrence
122.
Prevention:
"It is quite obvious that the means and methods used in prevention
of disease are those provided by medicine and science. And yet
whether these methods are applied or not does not depend on
medicine alone, but to a much higher extent on the philosophical
and social tendencies at the time... From whatever angle we
approach these problems, over and over we find that hygiene and
public, like medicine at large, are but an aspect of the general
civilization of the time and are largely determined by the
cultural conditions of that time." – H.E. Sigerist, Bulletin of
the History of Medicine, 1933
123.
Epidemiologists...
do it for your health.
124.
Mench’s Laws:
·
The data you have are not the data you want
·
The data you want are not the data you need
·
The data you need are not the data you can get
125.
Epi Haiku:
Love the,
prophylactically
means never having to
say
you are sorry
Dan Cherkin
126.
Epidemiologists...
give group rates.
127.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
their data just get soft.
128.
Research Doublespeak:
"Correct within an order of magnitude" means "Wrong" - contributed
by David Lawrence
129.
Epidemiologists...
look for meaningful relationships.
130.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just can't be traced.
131.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
their lives just get tabled.
132.
Epidemiologists...
have interesting transmissions.
133.
The Nature of Probability:
"The man who has fed the chicken every day throughout its life at
last wrings his neck instead, showing that more refined views as
to the uniformity of nature would have been useful to the
chicken." - Bertrand Russell
134.
Epidemiologists...
love Snow jobs.
135.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
their case just loses control.
136.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
Anyway, that's how they interpret the data.
137.
"In writing this book, I have honestly tried to avoid the four
grounds of human ignorance set forth long ago by Roger Bacon:
trust in inadequate authority, the force of custom, the opinion of
the inexperienced crowd, and hiding of one's own ignorance with
the parading of a superficial wisdom." - Ethel Dunham Premature
Infants, A Manual for Physicians
138.
Epidemiology...
is a risky business.
139.
Epidemiologists...
leave nothing to chance.
140.
Research Duoblespeak:
“It might be argued that..." means "I have such a good answer for
this objection that I shall raise it." - contributed by David
Lawrence
141.
"Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket
fired signifies in the final sense a theft from those who are
hungry and not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world
in arms is not spending money alone, it is spending the sweat of
its laborers, the genius of its scientists, hopes of its
children." - Dwight D. Eisenhower
142.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they're just broken down by age and sex.
143.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just leave their cohorts behind.
144.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just fail their goodness of fit.
145.
Epidemiologists...
do it with increased frequency.
146.
No,
I am not a skin doctor!
147.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
their samples just get smaller.
148.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
can't find a job? That's why!
149.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just cause new effects.
150.
Epidemiologists...
do in the field!
151.
Research Doublespeak:
"It has long been known..." means "I haven't bothered to look up
the original reference" - contributed by David Lawrence
152.
"The best estimates are that the medical system (doctors, drugs,
hospitals) affects about 10% of the usual indices for measuring
health: whether you live at all (infant mortality), how well you
live (days lost due to sickness), how long you live (adult
mortality). The remaining 90% are determined by factors over which
doctors have little or no control, from individual lifestyle
(smoking, exercise, worry), to social conditions (income, eating
habits, physiological inheritance), to the physical environment
(air and water quality). Most of the bad things that happen people
are at present beyond the reach of medicine." – A Waldovsky,
Daedalus, 1977
153.
Ride the downhill slope - with epidemiologists!
154.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
but they do tend to suffer from doze-response effects.
155.
Research Doublespeak:
"It is believed that..." means "I think" - contributed by David
Lawrence
156.
Epidemiologists...
compare and save.
157.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just put their relatives at risk!
158.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just don't factor in the analysis.
159.
"All things are hidden, obscure and debatable if the cause of the
phenomena be unknown, but everything is clear if this cause be
known." – Louis Pasteur. The Germ Theory and Its Application to
Medicine and Surgery, Ch. 2
160.
"A science does not truly become mature until it develops a
predictive capability." – P. Medawar, The Limits of Science
161.
"The scientific purist, who will wait for medical statistics until
they are and nosologically exact, is no wiser than Horace’s rustic
waiting for the river to flow away." - Major Greenwood, Medical
Statistics from Graunt to Farr, 1948
162.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they become step-wise.
163.
"If I were to compose an epitaph on medicine throughout the 20th
century, it would read, ‘Brilliant in its discoveries, superb in
its technological breakthroughs, but woefully inept in its
application to those most in need...’ “ – Rex Fendall
164.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they are just no longer prevalent.
165.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just become insignificant.
166.
"Science progresses not by convincing the adherents of old
theories that they are wrong, but by allowing enough time to pass
so that a new generation can arise unencumbered by the old
errors." - Max Planck
167.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
Old Epidemiologists
Never Die…
but perpetuate the
title
for tho they do no
longer shed
we study bout the
life they led
which keeps the
butter on our bread
and our statistics
vital Cheri Rolnick
168.
Frost follows Snow, in epidemiology
169.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
their effects just get modified.
170.
"The Government is very keen on amassing statistics. They collect
them, add them, raise them to the nth power, take the cube root
and prepare wonderful diagrams. But what you must never forget is
that every one of those figures comes in the first instance from
the village watchman, who just puts down what he damn pleases." -
Sir Josiah Stamp, 1929
171.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just drop out.
172.
Sample an epidemiologist!
173.
Co-relate with an epidemiologist!
174.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just get lost in the field.
175.
"No cold statistic expresses more eloquently the difference
between a society of sufficiency and a society of deprivation than
infant mortality." - Kathleen Newland, World Watch Paper, 1981
176.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…they
just can't quite manage the logistics of life.
177.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…they
just rate lower.
178.
"Medical research must pass from the study of disease to that of
health. The lesson of the Nineteenth Century, the greatest lesson
of that century, is that the object of medical study is for the
maintenance of health rather than the cure of the disease."
Franklin Paine Mall (in a letter to Abraham Flexner)
179.
Old Epidemiologists Never Die…
they just do less than expected.
180.
"In the conduct of... inquiries... keep the great object of
prevention constantly in view... because (it) is the ultimate aim
of all investigations of this sort... preventive measures may be
made a test of the truth of the theory itself." - William Budd,
Investigation of Epidemic and Epizotic Diseases, 1864
181.
Dat-a Epidemiologist!
182.
"To stand in need of a medical art through sloth and intemperate
diet... obliging the skillful sons of Asclepius to invent new
names of diseases, such as dropsies and catarrhs - do you not
think this abominable?" - Plato, The Republic
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