Miquel Porta

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Miquel Porta (Barcelona, 1957) is a Catalan physician, epidemiologist and scholar. He has promoted the integration of biological, clinical and environmental knowledge and methods in health research and teaching, which he has conducted internationally; notably, in Spain, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Harvard, Imperial College London, and several other universities in Europe, North America, Kuwait, and Brazil. Appointed by the International Epidemiological Association (IEA) [1] , in 2008 he succeeded the Canadian epidemiologist John M. Last as Editor of "A Dictionary of Epidemiology". [2] [3] In the Preface to this book he argues for an inclusive and integrative practice of the science of epidemiology. In September 2023, Porta made public through several social networks a call to suggest changes to the new, 7th. edition of the dictionary. The deadline for such contributions is 30 November 2023.

He is currently the head of the Clinical and Molecular Epidemiology of Cancer Unit [4] at the Hospital del Mar Institute of Medical Research - IMIM Hospital del Mar Research Institute [5] . He is also a Professor of Preventive Medicine & Public Health, School of Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), [6] an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), [7] and an adjunct professor at the New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine. [8] [9] After graduating from the UAB School of Medicine in 1981, Porta was during 3 years a Fellow with the Division of Clinical Pharmacology of UAB. He was then awarded a Fulbright scholarship to pursue the Master of Public Health (MPH) program at UNC, where he was later a Burroughs Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow in Pharmacoepidemiology.

The three main lines of research of his Unit at IMIM are: 1) Clinical and molecular epidemiology of pancreatic cancer and cancer of the extrahepatic biliary system. Gene-environment interactions with organochlorine compounds in the etiopathogenesis of pancreatic diseases. 2) Screening, early clinical detection, and "diagnostic delay" in cancer. 3) Assessing the impact on human health of Persistent Organic Pollutant (POPs). [10]

Other than at the UAB School of Medicine, he has also taught on molecular epidemiology, clinical epidemiology and pharmacoepidemiology at other institutions, including McGill University (Montreal, Canada), Imperial College (London), the European Educational Programme in Epidemiology (Firenze, Italy), several universities in Kuwait, Germany, Norway, Italy, Brazil and Mexico, and at Harvard, where he was on sabbatical in 1998-1999. He has acted as a grant and doctoral thesis reviewer for the Karolinska Institutet, the Finnish Academy, Diabetes UK, and several other European and American scientific organisations.

From 1994 to 1998 he was President of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology (SEE). From 2002 to 2005 he was European Councillor of the International Epidemiological Association (IEA) and Chairman of the IEA European Epidemiology Federation. [11]

He is (co)author of several hundred academic papers. [12] Beyond his main lines of research, he has written on topics such as causality [13] and the Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) / Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) link, [14] [15] persistent organic pollutants and public health, [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] genome metaphors, [21] the bibliographic impact factor and scientific journals, [22] [23] [24] [25] or the roles of scientific associations, [26] [27] among other issues. [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41]

He is an editor of the ‘Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health’ Homepage, and the ‘European Journal of Epidemiology’. [42]

In 2018 he published his first book addressed to the general public on human internal contamination and ways to prevent it. [43] In 2019 he edited 'Los imaginarios colectivos, la salud pública y la vida. Para conversar desde las artes sobre nuestro bienestar en sociedad', an internationally unique collection of texts relating public health and medicine with the arts. [44] In 2022 he published 'Epidemiología cercana', a collection of essays on epidemiology, culture, ethics, and policies. [45]

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References

  1. ↑ The International Epidemiological Association
  2. ↑ Miquel Porta (2014) A dictionary of epidemiology , 6th edn, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780199976737.
  3. ↑ Porta M, ed. A dictionary of epidemiology. 5th. edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN   978-0-19-531450-2 and ISBN   0-19-531450-6 "Oxford University Press: A Dictionary of Epidemiology: Miquel Porta". Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2011-04-21. (the 6th. was published in June 2014)
  4. ↑ "Miquel porta - IMIM". Imim.es. Retrieved 2011-03-10.
  5. ↑ Hospital del Mar Research Institute
  6. ↑ Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. "Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona". Uab.cat. Retrieved 2011-03-10.
  7. ↑ "Faculty and Staff". UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.
  8. ↑ "Education & Research at NYU Langone Health". NYU Langone Health.
  9. ↑ "Miquel Porta".
  10. ↑ Porta M, et al. Monitoring concentrations of persistent organic pollutants in the general population: the international experience. Environment International 2008; 34: 546-561.
  11. ↑ "IEA Change of Website URLs". Dundee.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2009-03-14. Retrieved 2011-03-10.
  12. ↑ "Miquel Porta B-5787-2008". ResearcherID.com. Retrieved 2011-03-10.
  13. ↑ Geneletti, SG; Gallo, V; Porta, M; Khoury, MJ; Vineis, P (Jun 2011). "Assessing causal relationships in genomics: From Bradford-Hill criteria to complex gene-environment interactions and directed acyclic graphs". Emerg Themes Epidemiol. 8 (1): 5. doi: 10.1186/1742-7622-8-5 . PMC   3141807 . PMID   21658235.
  14. ↑ Morabia, A; Porta, M (1998). "Ethics of ignorance: lessons from the epidemiological assessment of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy ('Mad Cow Disease') epidemic". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 41 (2): 259–266. doi:10.1353/pbm.1998.0022. PMID   9493402. S2CID   13239444.
  15. ↑ Porta, M; Morabia, A (2004). "Why aren't we more ahead? The risk of variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease from eating Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy-infected foods: Still undetermined [Editorial]". European Journal of Epidemiology. 19 (4): 287–289. doi:10.1023/b:ejep.0000024787.22873.cf. PMID   15180097. S2CID   1357381.
  16. ↑ Porta, M (2006). "Persistent organic pollutants and the burden of diabetes". The Lancet. 368 (9535): 558–559. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(06)69174-5. PMID   16905002. S2CID   45492710.
  17. ↑ Porta, M (2004). "Persistent toxic substances: exposed individuals and exposed populations". Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. 58 (7): 534–535. doi:10.1136/jech.2004.021238. PMC   1732812 .
  18. ↑ Porta M, Lee DH, Puigdomènech E. Transgenerational inheritance of environmental obesogens [Editorial]. Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2009; 66: 141-142.
  19. ↑ Porta, M; Zumeta, E (2002). "Implementing the Stockholm treaty on POPs [Editorial]". Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 59 (10): 651–652. doi:10.1136/oem.59.10.651. PMC   1740221 . PMID   12356922.
  20. ↑ Porta, M (2002). "Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, persistent organic pollutants and the achievable utopias". Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. 56 (11): 806–807. doi:10.1136/jech.56.11.806. PMC   1732063 . PMID   12388564.
  21. ↑ Porta, M (2003). "The genome sequence is a jazz score". International Journal of Epidemiology. 32 (1): 29–31. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyg015 . PMID   12690001.
  22. ↑ Porta, M (1996). "The bibliographic 'impact factor' of ISI, Inc.: How relevant is it really for public health journals?". Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. 50 (6): 606–610. doi:10.1136/jech.50.6.606. PMC   1060373 . PMID   9039375.
  23. ↑ Porta, M; Fernandez, E; The, Bolúmar F. (2006). ""bibliographic impact factor" and the still uncharted sociology of epidemiology". International Journal of Epidemiology. 35 (5): 1130–1135. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyl196 . PMID   16987846.
  24. ↑ Porta, M; Álvarez-Dardet, C (2008). "How come scientists uncritically adopt and embody Thomson's bibliographic impact factor? [Editorial Comment]". Epidemiology. 19 (3): 370–371. doi: 10.1097/ede.0b013e31816b73ab . PMID   18414082.
  25. ↑ Porta, M; Vandenbroucke, JP; Ioannidis, JP; Sanz, S; Fernandez, E; Bhopal, R; Morabia, A; Victora, C; Lopez, T (May 2013). "Trends in citations to books on epidemiologicaland statistical methods in the biomedical literature". PLOS ONE. 8 (5): e61837. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...861837P. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061837 . PMC   3646840 . PMID   23667447.
  26. ↑ Porta M. Do we really need ‘real’ epidemiological scientific meetings? [Editorial]" European Journal of Epidemiology 2003; 18: 101-103.
  27. ↑ Barros H, Porta M. Bridging worlds–The European Congress of Epidemiology" Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 2004; 58 (Supl. 1): iii-v.
  28. ↑ "El cáncer no es una lotería; en algunas ciudades hay más riesgo - Entrevista: Miquel Porta | El mapa más detallado de la mortalidad en España" [Cancer is not a lottery; in some cities there is more risk - Interview: Miquel Porta | The most detailed map of mortality in Spain]. El País (in Spanish). 2007-09-01.
  29. ↑ "Ver lo que nos sale a cuenta" [See what we get]. El País (in Spanish). 2010-06-10. p. 31. Archived from the original on 2011-12-28.
  30. ↑ "La salud pública exige más cooperación" [Public health requires more cooperation]. El País . 2011-05-03. p. 37.
  31. ↑ "La nueva Ley General de Salud Pública: desarrollarla es el gran reto del próximo Gobierno" [The new General Public Health Law: developing it is the great challenge of the next Government]. El País (in Spanish). 2011-10-03. p. 36.
  32. ↑ "Salud en todas las políticas" [Health in all policies]. El País (in Spanish). 2008-06-24. p. 41. Retrieved 2024-07-02.
  33. ↑ "Cerco a las sustancias tóxicas persistentes" [Fence of persistent toxic substances]. El País (in Spanish). 2007-01-30. p. 41.
  34. ↑ "Los viajeros ocultos de la obesidad" [The hidden travelers of obesity]. El País (in Spanish). 2006-04-18.
  35. ↑ "Contaminantes para nuestros nietos" [Pollutants for our grandchildren]. El País (in Spanish). 2002-01-15.
  36. ↑ "Facultades de medicina: internacionales o marginales" [Medical schools: international or marginal]. El País (in Spanish). 2006-10-10.
  37. ↑ "EPO: algo más que un problema de dosis" [EPO: more than a dosage problem]. El País (in Spanish). 2007-06-19.
  38. ↑ "Razones para no decidir con prisas" [Reasons not to decide in a hurry]. El País (in Spanish). 2007-11-06.
  39. ↑ "El problema no es la toxicidad aguda" [The problem is not acute toxicity]. El País (in Spanish). 2008-04-29.
  40. ↑ "Cuerpos tóxicos. El impacto cultural de nuestra contaminación interior" [Toxic bodies. The cultural impact of our indoor pollution]. La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 2009-11-25.
  41. ↑ "Entrevista a Miquel Porta - Debemos combatir los agentes tóxicos" [Interview with Miquel Porta - We must fight toxic agents]. La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 2009-08-19.
  42. ↑ "European Journal of Epidemiology". SpringerLink. Archived from the original on 2011-10-16. Retrieved 2011-03-10.
  43. ↑ Porta M. Vive más y mejor reduciendo tóxicos y contaminantes ambientales (Barcelona, Grijalbo). "Vive más y mejor reduciendo tóxicos y contaminantes ambientales".
  44. ↑ Porta M (ed.). Los imaginarios colectivos, la salud pública y la vida. Para conversar desde las artes sobre nuestro bienestar en sociedad. Madrid: Los Libros de la Catarata, 2019. Preface by Rosa Ballester, epilogue by Victoria Camps. Several authors, including Carlos Álvarez-Dardet, Ferran Ballester, Fernando G. Benavides, José Luis Bimbela, Rafa Cofiño, Esteve Fernandez, Ana M. García, Ildefonso Hernández-Aguado, Joan Carles March, Milagros Pérez Oliva, Andreu Segura, Andrés Rábago (el Roto). "Los imaginarios colectivos, la salud pública y la vida. Para conversar desde las artes sobre nuestro bienestar en sociedad". 5 July 2019.
  45. ↑ Porta M. Epidemiología cercana. La salud pública, la carne y el oxidado cuchillo del miedo. Foreword by Pampa García Molina. Epilogue by Miguel Hernán. Editorial Triacastela, Madrid, 2022. Epidemiología cercana. ASIN   8417252215.
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