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May 1

Implementing Health Care AI into Clinical Practice

A female healthcare professional wearing a lab coat and blue gloves interacts with a holographic display showing a digital human anatomy model and various medical data points. The futuristic interface includes graphs, charts, and diagnostic metrics, symbolizing the use of advanced AI and digital tools in clinical healthcare settings.
A young African – American doctor works on HUD or graphic display in front of her, we see her from the waist up in a modern laboratory
Location
Virtual

Time

10:00 am 10:30 am

Event Type

Lectures/Seminars/Forums

Join us for a webinar on the Implementing Health Care AI into Clinical Practice program, offered by Harvard Chan School Executive Education and hosted by Program Director Dr. Santiago Romero-Brufau, MD, PhD.

As AI technology advances, it has the potential to greatly enhance patient care efficiency by speeding up information processing. However, integrating AI into a health care practice or system is a complex task. This program provides clinicians and stakeholders with the essential skills to develop these processes internally.

If you’re interested in the program, we invite you to join the webinar to explore how it may align with your professional goals.

Speaker Information

May 1

Cutting through the Smoke​: Climate Change and Respiratory Health

Location
Building 1 – Room 1208
665 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115 United States

Time

1:00 pm 2:00 pm

Event Type

Lectures/Seminars/Forums

Watch here

Join the Department of Global Health and Population for our weekly Thursday Brown Bag Series! On May 1, Mary B. Rice, MD, MPH, will present “Cutting through the Smoke​: Climate Change and Respiratory Health”. Dr. Rice is the Mark and Catherine Winkler Associate Professor of Environmental Respiratory Health in the Department of Environmental Health and Director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE) at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The Thursday Brown Bag Series is a weekly seminar series featuring current research of faculty, affiliates, and guests of the department. Any questions regarding the series can be directed to the department at GHP@hsph.harvard.edu.

Speakers will share their own perspectives; they do not speak for Harvard

Speaker Information

April 4

Occupational and Environmental Medicine Grand Rounds

A worker using a grinder to plane metal.

Time

1:10 pm 1:50 pm

Event Type

Lectures/Seminars/Forums

Topic: We HAVS a problem: An overview of hand-arm vibration syndrome in a metal worker 

Presenter: Tiffany Tam, DO, First-year resident in the Occupational and Environmental Residency, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health 

Discussant: Aaron Thompson, MD, MPH, FRCPC (Occ Med), Associate Professor, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto; Staff Physician, Occupational & Environmental Medicine, St. Michael’s Hospital / Unity Health 

Location: Kresge 502 and Zoom 

Learning Objectives:  

  1. Explain the pathophysiology of hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS).   
  2. Explain how to identify cases of HAVS in your patients.
  3. Describe how to diagnose HAVS.
  4. Discuss the management of HAVS, including treatment options and preventive measures. 

CMEs will be offered to US licensed physicians:

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Chan Education and Research Center. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health designates this live activity for 0.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity

Register: Click here to register to attend via Zoom.

Speaker Information

May 7

Epidemiology of Autism: Substantive Results and Methodological Issues

Eric Fombonne Headshot
Location
HSPH, Kresge 502
677 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115 United States

Time

1:00 pm 1:50 pm

Event Type

From Around the School, Lectures/Seminars/Forums

Abstract: Since the mid 1960’s, 165 prevalence surveys of autism were conducted worldwide and their main findings will first be summarized. While the contribution of genetic factors to autism etiology is high, the increase in autism prevalence has raised concerns about additional contribution of environmental factors. Autism risk has been statistically associated with myriads of exposures but, with few exceptions, the causal nature of these associations remains unproven. Estimates are often confounded and results do not replicate across samples and study designs. We review recent findings on select risk factors to illustrate current methodological issues relevant to this research domain. 

Bio: Dr. Eric Fombonne trained in child and adolescent psychiatry in France. He held academic appointments at INSERM (Paris, France), at the Institute of Psychiatry (London, UK), at McGill University (Canada), and at OHSU (Portland, Oregon, USA). He has a long experience of clinical work with children with autism and their families, and of research on this population, especially using epidemiological methods. He published over 380 articles and 50 chapters in books. He was Associate Editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (1994-2004) and is currently  Joint Editor of Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

Speaker Information

April 9

Fine-Mapping Causal Tissues and Genes at Disease-Associated Loci

Strober & Price headshots
Location
Virtual

Time

1:00 pm 1:50 pm

Event Type

From Around the School, Lectures/Seminars/Forums

Abstract: Complex diseases often have distinct mechanisms spanning multiple tissues. We propose Tissue-Gene Fine-Mapping (TGFM), which infers the posterior probability (PIP) for each gene-tissue pair to mediate a disease locus by analyzing summary statistics and eQTL data; TGFM also assigns PIPs to non-mediated variants. TGFM accounts for co-regulation across genes and tissues and models uncertainty in cis-predicted expression models, enabling correct calibration. We applied TGFM to 45 UK Biobank diseases/traits using eQTL data from 38 GTEx tissues. TGFM identified an average of 147 PIP>0.5 causal genetic elements per disease/trait, of which 11% were gene-tissue pairs. Causal gene-tissue pairs identified by TGFM reflected both known biology (e.g., TPO-thyroid for Hypothyroidism) and biologically plausible findings (e.g., SLC20A2-artery aorta for Diastolic blood pressure). Application of TGFM to single-cell eQTL data from 9 cell types in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), analyzed jointly with GTEx tissues, identified 30 additional causal gene-PBMC cell type pairs.

Bio:
Alkes Price
Dr. Price is a professor in the Program in Genetic Epidemiology and Statistical Genetics in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard Chan, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Biostatistics.  He is an associate member of the Program in Medical and Population Genetics at the Broad Institute, and a member of the Program in Quantitative Genomics at Harvard Chan.  Dr. Price received a Ph.D. in mathematics and M.S.E. in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania.  His post-doctoral training was mentored by Dr. Pavel Pevzner in the department of computer science at UCSD and Dr. David Reich in the department of genetics at Harvard Medical School.  He has been a faculty member at Harvard Chan since 2008. Dr. Price’s research focuses on the development of statistical methods for uncovering the genetic basis of human disease, and on the population genetics underlying these methods.  Areas of interest include functional components of disease heritability, common vs. rare variant architectures of disease, and disease mapping in structured populations. 

Ben Strober
Dr. Strober is a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health supervised by Dr. Alkes Price. He completed his Ph.D. in 2021 in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University with Dr. Alexis Battle. Dr. Strober’s research focuses on context-specific genetic regulation of gene expression, and understanding its contribution to the genetic architecture of complex traits and disease. 

Speaker Information

April 23

Center Member Research Presentation: Sonia Hernández-Díaz, MD, DrPH, and Amruta Nori-Sarma, MPH, PhD

Time

1:00 pm 2:00 pm

Event Type

Lectures/Seminars/Forums

Join us for a Center Member Research Presentation by Dr. Sonia Hernández-Díaz and Dr. Amruta Nori-Sarma. Dr. Hernández-Díaz will present on Environmental exposures and health care claims: When two universes of data and methods collide and Dr. Nori-Sarma will present on Extreme weather impacts on mental health: Leveraging big data.

Sonia Hernández-Díaz, MD, DrPH is a Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she serves as Director of the Pharmacoepidemiology & Real World Evidence (RWE) Program.  Her research focuses on examining drug safety during pregnancy using primary and secondary observational data. She has experience with case-control surveillance studies, pregnancy registries, and pregnancy cohorts nested within healthcare utilization data. Another group of research activities concerns the application of innovative methodologic concepts to increase the efficiency and the validity of observational studies. In recent projects her team has emulated hypothetical target trials to evaluate medications and vaccines in pregnancy.

Amruta Nori-Sarma is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Health and Population Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. As an environmental epidemiologist, Dr. Nori-Sarma studies the relationship between environmental exposures associated with climate change and health outcomes in vulnerable communities. Dr. Nori-Sarma aims to understand the impacts of interrelated extreme weather events on mental health across the US utilizing large claims datasets. She also has an interest in evaluating the success of policies put in place to reduce the health impacts of climate change.

Additionally, Dr. Nori-Sarma serves as one of the leads of the CAFE RCC, the research coordinating center of the NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative. CAFE, a joint effort with the BU School of Public Health, aims to bring together and amplify the work of a more diverse community of practice in climate and health.

This event will be held in person in HSPH Bldg. 1, 1302 and via Zoom. Register here.

Speaker Information

April 17

Harvard Pop Center Social Demography Seminar: “Digital data for demographic estimation: Applications to the study of environmental hazards”

Social Demography text on swirly beige background with headshot of Jenna Nobles, PhD, professor of demography
Location
Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (The Pop Center)
9 Bow Street
Cambridge, MA United States

Time

12:00 pm 1:15 pm

Event Type

From Around the School, Lectures/Seminars/Forums

Jenna Nobles, PhD, professor of demography, University of California-Berkeley, presents at this Social Demography Seminar.

The Social Demography Seminar (SDS) series at the Center for Population and Development Studies provides a lively forum for scholars from across the university to discuss in-progress social scientific and population research. Social demography includes work that uses demographic methods to describe and explain the distribution of social goods across populations. The hybrid series offers presentations on a wide variety of topics such as family, gender, race/ethnicity, population health—including mortality, morbidity, and functional health—inequality, immigration, fertility, and the institutional arrangements that shape and respond to population processes.

Speaker Information

April 17

Meet & Greet and Book Signing with Douglas Dockery

Time

2:00 pm 3:00 pm

Event Type

Lectures/Seminars/Forums

Join us to meet Douglas Dockery, Emeritus Professor and former chair of the Department of Environmental Health, and author of the new book, Particles of Truth (MIT Press, 2025). The Harvard COOP will be selling copies of the book at the event, and Dr. Dockery will be available to sign copies of the book (that you bring or purchase there).

Location: Kresge Cafeteria Atrium

Time: 2:00pm – 3:00pm

Particles of Truth is a riveting account of the discovery of the critical health effects of air pollution told by Arden Pope and Douglas Dockery, who have been at the forefront of air pollution and health research for four decades. With an insightful foreword by former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, this compelling book provides an inside look at groundbreaking scientific research and ensuing political and public-policy battles. It presents evidence that air pollution is a major contributor to disease and death and that reducing air pollution saves lives. The book also delves into intense efforts to discredit and cast doubt on the science. Read more.

Speaker Information

March 26

Clitoris Class! by the Sexual and Reproductive Health Club

Clitoris class text with background of small floral details
Location
HSPH Kresge 201
677 Huntington Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115 United States

Time

1:00 pm 2:00 pm

Event Type

From Around the School, Lectures/Seminars/Forums

The Harvard Chan Sexual and Reproductive Health Club presents:

🔍 The Clitoris Class: A Public Health Mystery & Revolution 🎉

Did you know the first complete 3D map of the clitoris wasn’t published until 2005— after the iPhone, YouTube, and even Google Maps? From what your high school sex education and medical education may not have taught you to the science of how the clitoris actually works, this one-hour peer-to-peer class unpacks its history, function, and why it matters for public health. Get ready for a fun, eye-opening deep dive into the most misunderstood organ in medicine!

Lunch will be provided

Facilitated by Karishma Swarup, Mili Adhikari, Uma Gaddamanugu!

April 2

Population Research Exchange: “Hong Kong’s Elderly Biobank: An invaluable resource for global healthy aging promotion”

Population Research in text with headshot on white background of Jane Zhao, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics, Hong Kong University, and Takemi Fellow, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Location
Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (The Pop Center)
9 Bow Street
Cambridge, MA United States

Time

3:00 pm 4:00 pm

Event Type

From Around the School, Lectures/Seminars/Forums

Jane Zhao, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics, Hong Kong University, and Takemi Fellow, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, presents at this Population Research Exchange (PRX).

PRX delivers timely information on population science research and resources in a variety of formats. Each event features a different topic/theme by way of a special event, seminar, work-in-progress, mini methods workshop, resource information session, etc. Affiliated faculty members, students, and researchers share their current and future work, and some weeks we welcome guests who present on important resources available to Harvard scholars. In a true “exchange” format, lively dialogue and interchange occurs among attendees.

Speaker Information