Mathematical Modeling of Indigenous Populations Health

The "Mathematical Modeling of Indigenous Populations Health" workshop will be hosted at The Banff International Research Station.

The workshop will build on past collaborative efforts established at the 2012 Centre for Disease Modelling workshop on “Indigenous Populations Health Protection”, to further explore strategies for optimizing health responses to the threats of emerging infectious diseases. While not a fully exhaustive list, reasons for the disproportionate effects of the 2009 influenza H1N1 have been identified as the prevalence of pre-disposing health conditions, limited access to healthcare, and various historical considerations. Understanding the role of these factors in disease spread poses significant challenges but at the same time presents opportunities for developing appropriate and novel mathematical models, theoretical frameworks, and technologies that will lead to well informed public health policy decisions. It is important that these efforts be conducted in a truly interdisciplinary fashion, involving stakeholders, public health policy decision makers, surveillance and health informatics experts, computer scientists, statisticians and mathematicians, so as to ensure that a correct understanding of the relationship between vulnerability, risk factors, and within-community factors (e.g., age distribution, multigenerational household, crowded living conditions, and other demographic variables as well as transportation) are reached.

The workshop will be a timely event for the dissemination of new knowledge generated to-date by synthesizing the best available data in modelling endeavours, and sharing findings of public health significance. The workshop will also hear from stakeholders and policy makers involved in Indigenous health to ensure that the target messages are delivered and the practical aspects of newly generated knowledge are discussed. Taken together, this knowledge will lead to useful strategies that move us from evidence to action, and facilitate future directions for collaborative efforts.

The Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) is a collaborative Canada-US-Mexico venture that provides an environment for creative interaction as well as the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and methods within the Mathematical Sciences, with related disciplines and with industry. The research station is located at The Banff Centre in Alberta and is supported by Canada's Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the US National Science Foundation (NSF), Alberta's Advanced Education and Technology, and Mexico's Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT).

BIRS Scientific Director, Nassif Ghoussoub
E-mail: birs-director[@]birs.ca
http://www.birs.ca/~nassif