Sometimes, in all the fancy scientific research that we do around here, we forget the reason for doing this research — to prevent disease. Every Monday, our department has its weekly “Epi Seminar Series,” at which different students and faculty members present on a topic related to epidemiology. This week we spiced things up a bit with a department debate. The topic: advocacy in epidemiology. Two students and two faculty members went back and forth on whether or not it was appropriate, as a scientist writing in a peer-reviewed journal, to advocate for the elimination of poverty through the re-distribution of wealth. As one could imagine, a heated discussion came about.

However, while the debate was interesting, there was an even more important point raised about epidemiology on Monday. I believe the most astute comment came from an observer at the other end of the table. Dr. Bill Barker, a professor emeritus in the department who served in the Epidemic Intelligence Service, spoke of the time when he entered the field of disease prevention. He said, at the time, prevention was the last thing on most doctors’ minds. But, Dr. Barker made an amazing analogy that, as a physician, it was like he was downstream a river watching bodies float by and trying to pull them out to save them. As an epidemiologist, he was working upstream and could do the research to keep the people from getting into the river in the first place.

It seems as though, in this day and age, in order to do some kind of novel research you have to get so specialized that one forgets what the point was of doing the research in the first place. Even as a first-year student, I find myself getting wrapped up in making sure that I know the proper methods and how to calculate results to find statistical significance. Dr. Barker reminded us all that the real focus is on whether our research is significant clinically. I think it’s important to take a step back and ask the question, “Are we going to be preventing someone from getting sick?”