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), in 2008 he succeeded the Canadian epidemiologist John M. Last as Editor of "A Dictionary of Epidemiology". [1] [2] 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 [3] at the Hospital del Mar Institute of Medical Research - IMIM . He is also a Professor of Preventive Medicine & Public Health, School of Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), [4] an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), [5] and an adjunct professor at the New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine. [6] [7] 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). [8]
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. [9]
He is (co)author of several hundred academic papers. [10] Beyond his main lines of research, he has written on topics such as causality [11] and the Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) / Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) link, [12] [13] persistent organic pollutants and public health, [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] genome metaphors, [19] the bibliographic impact factor and scientific journals, [20] [21] [22] [23] or the roles of scientific associations, [24] [25] among other issues. [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39]
He is an editor of the ‘Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health’ , and the ‘European Journal of Epidemiology’. [40]
In 2018 he published his first book addressed to the general public on human internal contamination and ways to prevent it. [41] 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. [42] In 2022 he published 'Epidemiología cercana', a collection of essays on epidemiology, culture, ethics, and policies. [43]
Cristóbal Balenciaga Eizaguirre was a Spanish fashion designer, and the founder of the Balenciaga clothing brand. He had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior and as "the only couturier in the truest sense of the word" by Coco Chanel, who continued, "The others are simply fashion designers". On the day of his death, in 1972, Women's Wear Daily ran the headline "The King is Dead".
Carles Solà was born in Xàtiva, Valencia Province on 1 January 1945.
Miguel Ángel Martínez-González is a Spanish medical doctor, epidemiologist, professor, and nutrition researcher He has been often a visiting scholar at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Molecular epidemiology is a branch of epidemiology and medical science that focuses on the contribution of potential genetic and environmental risk factors, identified at the molecular level, to the etiology, distribution and prevention of disease within families and across populations. This field has emerged from the integration of molecular biology into traditional epidemiological research. Molecular epidemiology improves our understanding of the pathogenesis of disease by identifying specific pathways, molecules and genes that influence the risk of developing disease. More broadly, it seeks to establish understanding of how the interactions between genetic traits and environmental exposures result in disease.
A prospective cohort study is a longitudinal cohort study that follows over time a group of similar individuals (cohorts) who differ with respect to certain factors under study, to determine how these factors affect rates of a certain outcome. For example, one might follow a cohort of middle-aged truck drivers who vary in terms of smoking habits, to test the hypothesis that the 20-year incidence rate of lung cancer will be highest among heavy smokers, followed by moderate smokers, and then nonsmokers.
The Dark Night is a 1989 Spanish-French drama film directed by Carlos Saura. It stars Juan Diego as John of the Cross in solitary confinement in a Carmelite monastery in Toledo in 1577.
A health crisis or public health crisis is a difficult situation or complex health system that affects humans in one or more geographic areas, from a particular locality to encompass the entire planet. Health crises generally have significant impacts on community health, loss of life, and on the economy. They may result from disease, industrial processes or poor policy.
Josep María Socías i Humbert was a Spanish lawyer and politician. He graduated from the University of Barcelona (UB) with a degree in law, and was named Mayor of Barcelona by King Juan Carlos I on 6 December 1976.
Antonio Gallego Gallego is a Spanish writer and musicologist.
The Steel of Madrid is a 1608 play by the Spanish writer Lope de Vega, considered part of the Spanish Golden Age of literature.
The Carlos III Health Institute is a Spanish public health research institute, legally constituted as a public research agency, a type of quasi-autonomous entity under Spanish law. The ISCIII is integrated in the Department of Science and Innovation, although it also reports to the Department of Health in the institute's activities relating health, healthcare and its planning.
Luis Miguel Landa is a Spanish athlete and coach. As a coach, he has held positions in the Spanish Ski and Athletics Federations. He has also coached Olympic and international athletes, with many of his athletes becoming Spanish national champions. In 1999, Spanish journalist José María García said he is the "father of modern Spanish Marathon".
Pablo Kuri-Morales is a Mexican public health scientist and epidemiologist.
Carla Vizzotti is an Argentine physician specialized in vaccine-preventable diseases. She was the Secretary of Health Access and Vice Minister of Health in Argentina's Health Ministry, working under Minister Ginés González García, until February 2021. She has been Minister of Health since 20 February 2021, following González García's resignation.
Julio Daniel Salinas Grecco is a Uruguayan neurologist and politician of Open Cabildo (CA), who served as Minister of Public Health of Uruguay from 1 March 2020 to 13 March 2023.
Celia Mercedes Alpuche Aranda is a Mexican pediatric infectious disease specialist, researcher and teacher. Since 2013, she has been Deputy Director General of Research Center for Mexico's Infectious Diseases (CISEI) of the National Institute of Public Health.
Lyda Elena Osorio Amaya is a Colombian physician, epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist. She is an associate professor at the Universidad del Valle, and a researcher at the Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Médicas (CIDEIM) in Cali, Valle del Cauca. Osorio's research has focused mainly on vector-borne diseases like malaria, leishmaniasis, Zika and dengue fever. She has also played a role in Colombia's response against COVID-19.
In epidemiology, the term hyperendemic disease is used to refer to a disease which is constantly and persistently present in a population at a high rate of incidence and/or prevalence (occurrence) and which equally affects all age groups of that population. It is one of the various degrees of endemicity.
In epidemiology, a sporadic disease is an infectious disease which occurs only infrequently, haphazardly, irregularly, or occasionally, from time to time in a few isolated places, with no discernible temporal or spatial pattern, as opposed to a recognizable epidemic outbreak or endemic pattern. The cases are so few and separated so widely in time and place that there exists little or no discernable connection within them. They also do not show a recognizable common source of infection.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help)