Welcome to the final module, module eight,
in the course Disease Screening in Public Health,
where you will learn how to evaluate and develop policies for screening programs.
We will conclude this module with an exploration of the topics
that will likely be the focus for screening programs in the future.
If you have finished module seven,
you will have learnt key concepts and areas of focus for screening programs worldwide,
you will understand the special issues that affects screening
of chronic disease in low to middle income countries,
and you will understand the special needs for screening of migrants.
This will be a solid basis for
this module that examines how to evaluate screening programs,
develop policies for the programs,
and what the future public health screening might look like.
In this module, we will look at
what information you need to make decisions about screening programs,
and what you may want to consider going forward.
This module is given by senior lecturer Jean-Luc Bulliard,
who is an epidemiologist in the division of
chronic diseases at the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine in Lausanne.
The focus of this module is on making decisions about screening programs.
With this in mind, current controversies in screening will be explored,
the touch on the conflict between societal good versus individual harm and benefit,
the scientific dissent that exists around claims
of benefit and harm from different programs,
issues in communication about screening and how this can impact and form choice,
and finally, conflicts of interest that exist.
Methods to evaluate evidence
will be reviewed to ensure that in screening program planning,
evidence is reviewed, the balance of benefits and harms are evaluated,
and evaluations are completed using appropriate study designs.
The three significant biases that exist in screening programs namely: lead time,
length time, and overdiagnosis will be defined and discussed.
The module will then focus on the requirements for planning
that include: defining clear objectives,
creation of decision aids, defining operational policies,
setup of computerized information systems,
delineating the setting and required infrastructure support,
detailing of communications, setup of coordination and management,
plans for quality control, and finally,
inclusion of appropriate research programs.
The next lecture will provide a framework for
making decisions based on scientific evidence,
available resources, and current social values and
beliefs to determine whether to start or stop a screening program.
In the final lecture,
I will interview several experts on what they think
the future will be for disease screening in public health.
The learning objectives for this module are:
to describe different study designs that may be used for
evaluation of screening programs along with
important biases and controversies associated with screening programs,
to list the nine key resources needed for planning a screening program,
and to describe the characteristics of
decision making framework used for screening programs.
Thank you for your time and attention,
I hope you enjoyed this module.