2023 IDM Annual Symposium

Scientist collects river water for testing.

The 2023 IDM Annual Symposium will be held May 22-24 in Seattle at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Conference Center. This will be our first three-day Symposium since the COVID-19 pandemic. The theme of this year is Frontiers in Modeling & Data Science for Global Health and it’s shaping up to be an exciting three days! We will have a plenary panel on Large Language Models as they relate to global health and many other exciting presentations on measles, human resources for health (HRH), maternal and newborn health, development of modeling expertise in Africa, TB, malaria, and more. While space is limited for in-person attendance, all are welcome to join virtually and virtual registration will remain open until the symposium is held.

Monday, May 22, 2023

7:30AM – 9:30 AMREGISTRATION AND BREAKFAST
9:30am – 9:45amOPENING REMARKS
9:45am – 10:45amOPENING PLENARY PANEL: Data ethics & AI
Join scholars working at the leading edge of the ethical, environmental, social, and political dimensions of data and AI for a discussion on navigating an AI future through the lens of equity.
11:00am – 12:15pmSESSION 1: Interactive session on data ethics & AI
This 75-minute interactive session will focus on introducing several popular AI tools, trying them in real-time, and discussing the promise and challenges of applying these AI tools in global health contexts.  For this session, we will be highlighting advances in AI image generation using MidJourney, language and chat using ChatGPT, and software programming support using CoPilot and ChatGPT.  
12:15pm – 1:30pmLUNCH
1:30pm – 3:00pmSESSION 2: Applied perspectives on AI & large language models
Invited speakers; session explores the history, current challenges, and future directions of AI:
– Generative AI models: where they came from and where are they going?
– AI sustainability, ethics, and transparency, a deep dive into the training corpus.
– AI frontiers in healthcare, emerging topics and relevance for low- and middle-income countries.
3:15pm – 5:00pmPOSTER SESSION
5:00pm – 6:00pmRECEPTION AND HAPPY HOUR

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

7:15AM – 8:15AMBREAKFAST
8:15am – 8:45amOPENING PLENARY: Incorporating inequity aversion into disease modeling
9:00am – 10:30amSESSION 1A: Modeling infection inequity from local to global levels
SESSION 1B: Enterics and the environment
SESSION 1C: COVID-19: Methodologies and healthcare policy
SESSION 1D: Coming up short: Delivering on the promises of primary healthcare systems
SESSION 1E: Invited software demonstrations
11:00am – 12:30pmSESSION 2A: Beyond pharma: Big ideas to reach elimination in TB and other diseases
SESSION 2B: Polio
SESSION 2C: COVID-19: understanding epidemics and addressing issues in equity
SESSION 2D: Quantifying the ‘softer side’ of effective health systems: is it a bad idea:
SESSION 2E: Software demonstrations
12:30pm – 1:45pmLUNCH
Special lunch & learn session: From modeled evidence to policy decision-making: Key takeaways from four countries
1:45pm – 3:15pmSESSION 3A: Beyond pharma 2: Turning nutrition and determinants into interventions for TB
SESSION 3B:
Under 5 mortality
SESSION 3C:
Model calibration
SESSION 3D:
Measles
SESSION 3E:
Applied math & software
3:30pm – 4:30pmKEYNOTE SPEAKER
5:15pm – 6:30pmRECEPTION: At the Seattle Aquarium pier
6:30PM – 9:30PMDINNER AT THE SEATTLE AQUARIUM

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

7:00AM – 8:00AMBREAKFAST
8:00am – 9:00amOPENING SESSION: Development of modeling centers in Africa
9:15am – 10:45amSESSION 1A: Building and strengthening the MNCH evidence base
SESSION 1B: Modeling HIV prevention policies
SESSION 1C: Introducing the Africa CDC continental framework for strengthening mortality surveillance systems: Current and future agendas 
SESSION 1D: Malaria modeling for sub-national tailoring
DEMO SESSION: Introduction to PACE-HRH: A software package for estimating human resource requirements
11:00am – 12:30pmSESSION 2A: Exploring vulnerability and family planning
SESSION 2B: Gender disparities & comorbidities in HIV infection
SESSION 2C: Verbal autopsy IT tools: Software developers and modelers come together to accelerate certification of cause of death in LMICs
SESSION 2D: Malaria modeling for next generation interventions
12:30pm – 1:45pmLUNCH
1:45pm – 3:15pmSESSION 3A: New perspectives on family planning metrics & measurement
SESSION 3B:
Neglected tropical diseases: Screening & assessment to improve intervention impact
SESSION 3C:
Verbal autopsy data collection and epidemiology of certified causes of death in SSA and South Asia
SESSION 3D:
Arboviruses and vector-borne diseases
3:30pm – 5:00pmCLOSING PANEL: Gender intentional research & data
5:15pm – 5:45pmCLOSING REMARKS

Previous Symposia

  • 2022 IDM Annual Symposium

    The 2022 IDM Annual Symposium talks and discussions ranged from environmental and genomic surveillance, nutrition, under immunization and vaccine coverage, data collection and analysis, to the new StarSim modeling platform.

  • 2018 IDM Annual Symposium

    The 2018 IDM Annual Symposium covered a wide range of topics. Multiple talks focused on small area estimation in public health and demography. Other talks discussed access, treatment, and all-cause mortality in child health. Pandemic preparedness, pandemics and big data, and seasonality of pandemic influenza talks were also given.

  • 2019 IDM Annual Symposium

    The 2019 IDM Annual Symposium covered malaria, tuberculosis, health seeking behavior, trends in maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH), health economics, social and behavioral analysis, policy, social science, disease burden, and mortality reduction with Azithromycin were discussed.

  • 2017 IDM Annual Symposium

    The 2017 IDM Annual Symposium included talks on model calibration, pneumonia, diarrhea and respiratory infections, measles, and malaria – including the potential of genomic epidemiology, surveillance, and ecology.

  • 2016 IDM Annual Symposium

    The 2016 IDM Annual Symposium covered the modeling tool EMOD, malaria genetics and elimination, several vector-borne diseases, enteric diseases, and HIV.