Only a few efforts have been made to define competencies for epidemiologists working in academic settings. Here we describe a multi-national effort to define competencies for epidemiologists who are increasingly facing emerging and potentially disruptive technological and societal health trends in academic research. During a 1,5 years period, we followed an iterative process that aimed to be inclusive and multi-national to reflect the various perspectives of the diverse group of epidemiologists. Competencies were developed by a consortium in a consensus-oriented process that spanned three main activities: two in-person interactive meetings in Amsterdam and Zurich and an online survey. In total, 93 meeting participants from 16 countries and 173 respondents from 19 countries contributed to the development of 31 competencies. These 31 competencies included 14 on "Developing a scientific question" and "Study planning", 12 on "Study conduct & analysis", 3 on "Overarching competencies" and 2 competencies on "Communication and translation". The process described here provides a consensus-based framework for defining and adapting the field. It should initiate a continuous process of thinking about competencies and the implications for teaching epidemiology to ensure that epidemiologists working in academic settings are well prepared for today's and tomorrow's health research.
MULTIFILE
Often research, education and professional practice are positioned as different activities. Researchers, students and professionals are defined in subject-object relations. For my Phd. thesis I applied another perspective. In dialogue with School Social Workers, Bachelor Social Work students during their internship, Vocational High School (VHS) Teachers and other involved actants I worked on activities to improve the financial health of VHS students. We explored in a relational spacial ethnography the roles of all above mentioned actants as learning professional and inquirer. During this long term project a mixed method participatory approach was applied. However in this ethnography these activities where integral part of developing of a whole set of interventions. It gave us the opportunity to develop new perspectives at developing interventions and learning in a relational dialogue