Are the Objectives of Epidemiologic Studies and Risk Analysis the Same?
. P Cowen; North Carolina State University peter_cowen@ncsu.edu Abstract: Both epidemiologists and risk assessors have devoted considerable efforts to food safety over the last decade. Their efforts have been rewarded with the development of new methodologies and models such as farm-to-table risk assessments and population based surveillance systems such as FoodNet. Both epidemiologists and risk assessors, therefore, might well deserved some modicum of credit for recent improvements evidenced in the public health data in the United States concerning the occurrence of foodborne disease in humans. So it is clear that the long-term goals of epidemiologists and risk assessors are complimentary and closely aligned. But are the objectives of the two subdisciplines the same as they approach the problem of foodborne disease? This presentation asserts that epidemiologists work from a public health and population medicine disciplinary matrix, while risk assessors rely on the worldview of the dec
