title: John Snow's legacy: epidemiology without borders.
abstract: This Review provides abstracts from a meeting held at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, on April 11-12, 2013, to celebrate the legacy of John Snow. They describe conventional and unconventional applications of epidemiological methods to problems ranging from diarrhoeal disease, mental health, cancer, and accident care, to education, poverty, financial networks, crime, and violence. Common themes appear throughout, including recognition of the importance of Snow's example, the philosophical and practical implications of assessment of causality, and an emphasis on the evaluation of preventive, ameliorative, and curative interventions, in a wide variety of medical and societal examples. Almost all self-described epidemiologists nowadays work within the health arena, and this is the focus of most of the societies, journals, and courses that carry the name epidemiology. The range of applications evident in these contributions might encourage some of these institutions to consider broadening their remits. In so doing, they may contribute more directly to, and learn from, non-health-related areas that use the language and methods of epidemiology to address many important problems now facing the world.
authors.affiliation: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK. paul.fine@lshtm.ac.uk
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fine
authors.forename: Cesar G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Victora
authors.forename: Kenneth J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Rothman
authors.forename: Patrick S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Val
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Curtis
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Heymann
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Slutkin
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: May
authors.forename: Vikram
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wortley
authors.forename: Carole
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Torgerson
authors.forename: Angus
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deaton
mesh_terms: D015984:Causality; D002771:Cholera / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003415:Crime; D004739:England; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D004813:Epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D006920:Hygiene; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012106:Research / Q000193:education; D012307:Risk Factors; D012514:Sarcoma, Kaposi / Q000196:embryology* / Q000453:epidemiology; D014754:Violence