The course consists of two parts:
Modelling Infectious Diseases (Monday-Wednesday)
Mathematical models are increasingly used to study infectious disease transmission, simulate reactive strategies and inform policy. In this course we focus on dynamic or time-dependent models representing the transmission of evolutionary systems. We start with basic concepts of transmission models for infectious diseases and continue with parameter estimation and social contact patterns. The level of model complexity increases from deterministic compartmental models up to stochastic individual-based models and we provide hands-on tutorials in R.
Health Economics for Vaccines (Thursday-Friday)
Health interventions are assessed with respect to both effects and costs in health economic evaluations or health technology assessments. The objective is to optimize health outcomes for a constrained health budget. We elaborate in this course on cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses for infectious disease interventions with focus on vaccines. We demonstrate different types of uncertainty for economic evaluations and key aspects to evaluate preventive and curative medicine.
Experience with R is a plus, though we provide basic info upfront and are there to help you.
Timeline
Mathematical Models Infectious Disease Models | ||
Monday (11h-17h) | Introduction to mathematical modelling for infectious diseases | |
Tuesday (9h-17h) | Inferring model parameters from serological data | |
Wednesday (9h-17h) | Meta-population and individual-based models | |
Health Economics for Vaccines | ||
Thursday (9h-17h) | Introduction to health economic evaluation and dealing with uncertainty | |
Friday (9h-15h) | Specific issues for economic evaluation of vaccination programs |
Venue
University of Antwerp City Campus
Building K, Room 103
Kleine Kauwenberg 14
2000 Antwerpen
The venue is located near Central Station (17min walk). If you come to Antwerp by car, check the regulations about the Low Emission Zone .
Instructors and funding
The instructors have published an influential body of methodological and applied work on modelling infectious diseases and health economics:
- Prof. Lander Willem (University of Antwerp)
- Prof. Philippe Beutels (University of Antwerp)
- Prof. Joke Bilcke (University of Antwerp)
- Prof. Niel Hens (Hasselt University, University of Antwerp)
- Dr. Pietro Coletti (Hasselt University)
- and others...
This interdisciplinary initiative is organised and funded by
- Antwerp Summer and Winter University
- University of Antwerp
- Hasselt University
- Quetelet Society
Target group
Health science professionals, (bio)statisticians, economists, mathematicians, etc. who want to expand their modelling toolbox and/or increase their understanding of cost-effectiveness analysis.
Micro-credentials and study credits (ECTS)
Successful completion of the summer school can be awarded with 3 credits according the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). To award ECTS credits, participants are evaluated on a report of a case-study linked to the course material, which has to be send in one month after the course. To include the credits in the curriculum at the home institution, participants need an agreement with the responsible person at their university.
A certificate of completion is issued as a micro-credential.