NIDCD Holds Epidemiology Workshop

Because only about 1.1 percent of NIDCD-funded grants are associated with epidemiology, there is a definite need to increase the number of investigators with training in epidemiology and an interest in hearing research. To address this need and other related issues, NIDCD sponsored the Epidemiology of Communication Disorders Workshop, which was held on March 29–30, 2005, in Bethesda, MD. The workshop was held to encourage more epidemiological research in the field of communication disorders. Workshop participants reviewed current epidemiological knowledge within each of NIDCD's mission areas of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, and language and recommended priority topics in which more epidemiological research is needed. Findings from earlier epidemiologic investigations and reports on useful biostatistical methods were presented. You can read a summary of the workshop at www.nidcd.nih.gov/funding/programs/ep/episummary.asp.

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