E-Learning @SAFOSO

SAFOSO welcomes you to our online training platform featuring courses in our areas of expertise.

Dissemination of knowledge is one of SAFOSO’s strengths. We have long-standing experience in organizing and executing workshops around animal health and food safety. We are now applying this wealth of experience and scientific knowledge to online training courses.

With the new opportunity for online study, we aim to provide easy access to high-quality education.

Whether to learn something new or to refresh your know-how, we aim to provide you with competent knowledge of a broad range of topics related to animal health and food safety.

Enhance your competence at work, advance your career or simply improve your general knowledge.

We hope you’ll enjoy our self-study courses.

Course 1

Epidemiology for Non-Epidemiologists

Feedback from course participants:

“I think [this course] is an amazing opportunity for absolutely everybody! I bought [it] for my fiancé as he is always asking a lot of questions, the current pandemic enhanced his interest even more.”

Julie Pont, Veterinary Public Health Institute, Switzerland

“Thanks to the comprehensiveness of the subject matter and the use of very concrete examples, this e-learning course is accessible to everyone. It allows learners to become familiar with the basics of epidemiology, to analyze information with more nuance and to strengthen one's critical sense”

Anne Ceppi, GVFI International AG

“Overtime I gathered pieces of information about epidemiology in a somewhat haphazard way. This course helped me seeing these bits and pieces in context and putting the puzzle together. Furthermore, it may make concepts of epidemiology accessible to interested laypersons who are involved in implementing measures on a community level or politicians.”

Andreas Waldvogel, DVM, PhD, independent consultant

"Overall the course is very clear and well laid out. The pace is good and the content is well structured. The information presented is high level enough to be consumable by non-epidemiologists yet detailed enough to provide a comprehensive overview. I like the focus on Covid at times as it is a relevant infection that the whole world can understand with the ongoing pandemic. I feel that coming out of watching this content it makes me want to learn more. The information around topics like epidemic curves is also extremely interesting with respect to the ongoing pandemic.

I honestly feel that everyone should consume this information to raise the knowledge bar and promote more detailed discussion around the current pandemic."

Christopher Brown

Overview

This course will illustrate epidemiological concepts that we are exposed to in everyday life, and help you interpret these concepts for your own understanding of current events related to diseases in animals and people.

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What you will learn

Basic understanding of how epidemiology touches our daily lives

What data are needed for informed interpretation of disease spread

The difference between association, correlation and causality

The importance of visualization of data

Course details

20-30 minutes per module, totaling 3-4 hours

7 Modules

Beginner level

100% online

English

Certificate of completion

Video sequences

Quizzes

Lecture slides with voiceover audio

Curious? Take a sneak peek of the course here.

Detailed course description

The course consists of seven modules that are based on the most relevant and frequently occurring examples of public health and veterinary public health diseases. Real-life examples will be used to illustrate and explain theoretical concepts of epidemiology.

The format includes lecture slides with voiceover audio, video sequences, excel sheets, and webpages with self-assessment quizzes.

Certificates of completion will be available for download for the successfully completed course.

One Health

This course is framed in and embraces the One Health concept approaching diseases in animals and in people in equal measure: for every example in human health used to illustrate an epidemiological concept, an example in animal health is used.

Participants are able to draw parallels between human and animal diseases recognizing how epidemiology for animals is very much the same as epidemiology for people.

For example, an epidemiological task force on SARS-CoV-2 requires an understanding of how the virus behaves among animals as well as how the disease behaves among people in order to control it.

Course module overview

Introduction

A brief history of epidemiology and how epidemiological concepts are used in the media today.

Case Definition and Population at Risk

The importance of using case definitions and the population at risk for disease prevention and control.

Measures of Disease

Commonly used measures of disease in the media illustrated with real disease examples

Spread of Disease

Measures of disease spread using real disease examples.

Association, Correlation, and Causality

Detailed examination of the fundamental differences between these concepts and their influence on the interpretation of data.

Bias, Missing Data, Confounding Variables

Understand how missing data, variables not taken into consideration, and author biases can influence data.

Visualization

How the data is visualized is crucial to interpretation. Visualization must be appropriate to the data and the conclusions.

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