The Summer Institute for Statistics, Modeling, and Infectious Diseases (SISMID) 2024 Recap
From July 15th to July 31st, 2024, the 16th annual Summer Institute for Statistics, Modeling, and Infectious Diseases (SISMID) took place at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. The workshop took place under the auspices of the Emory Center for Infectious Disease Modeling & Analytics and Training Hub (CIDMATH) and was directed under CIDMATH Co-Directors Dr. Natalie Dean, Associate Professor of Biostatistics and Dr. Benjamin Lopman, Professor of Epidemiology.
SISMID was founded by Dr. Elizabeth Halloran, Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Washington, in 2009 and took place there for its first 15 years. This year marked the first time that SISMID occurred in its new home at Emory. 256 researchers and practitioners registered to attend SISMID this year, ranging in roles from graduate students, post-docs, and public health practitioners at the federal and state levels.
Over three weeks, attendees learned about cutting edge methods in infectious disease epidemiology, modeling, and statistics from 16 modules spread out over the program. These modules covered topic areas that due to their specialization would not normally be taught at public health institutions, such as “Reconstructing Transmission with Genomic Data”, “Network Modeling for Epidemics”, and “Simulation-Based Inference for Epidemiological Dynamics”
“What SISMID really excels at is providing tools for people to use that they can then take back to their projects and their work,” said Dr. Dean.
CIDMATH Outbreak Analytics Fellow Cameron Goetgeluck agreed, noting that in the SISMID modules he attended, “…you get data that was once live data for an outbreak or some kind of adjacent situation, and you can really apply and adjust those models to see how academics and or practitioners would use them. And I think that really solidifies skill sets, because you take this very overarching theory and then you have to pick the pieces that are appropriate to use in an emerging situation.”
With a new home came new innovations for SISMID attendees. In the evenings after module sessions, attendees presented their research to each other during poster sessions that also served as networking nights. During the day, visiting professors and professionals held “Lunch & Learn” sessions on various aspects of professional development for attendees. Additionally, visiting representatives of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention shared information and updates about different branches of the Center for Forecasting & Analytics, which organized the InsightNet network of which CIDMATH is a part.
The statistics show SISMID’s success. 90% of respondents to a SISMID evaluation survey indicated that SISMID provided advanced training that they wouldn’t be able to get at their current institution, and 92% of respondents “strongly agreed” or “agreed” that SISMID advanced their computing and/or modeling skills. Additionally, 95% of survey respondents “strongly agreed” or “agreed” that they would recommend SISMID to other colleagues.
“[SISMID] really opened me to different avenues and different people that I wouldn’t have interacted with beforehand and different ways that things are being used that aren’t necessarily talked about in class,” affirmed SISMID attendee and Rollins MPH student Arnetta McVey Moffatt.
Currently, CIDMATH is gearing up for SISMID 2025. Another new development in the works is SISMID’s first-ever set of online courses, which will be offered July 7th – 11th. In-person modules will be offered July 14th – July 30th. The CIDMATH team looks forward to hosting another successful workshop and to training another cohort of the next generation of public health practitioners and researchers.
“Akshay Deverakonda, the author of this article, is an MSPH Epidemiology student, concentrating in infectious disease epidemiology, in the Rollins School of Public Health Class of 2025.”