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Arnaud Chiolero, MD, PhD

Professor of Population Health
University of Fribourg, Switzerland and
Dept of Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Occupational Health, ÎÛÎÛ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ University
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WHEN: Monday, February 3, 2025, from 4 to 5 p.m.
WHERE: Hybrid| 2001 ÎÛÎÛ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ College, Rm 1140 |
NOTE: Arnaud Chiolero will be presenting in-person
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Abstract

Surveillance bias occurs when variations in the frequency of a health event result from differences in the modality or intensity of detection, rather than actual changes in its underlying risk. These differences often arise from varying screening and diagnostic strategies over time or across populations, care settings, and types of patients. As a result, population health monitoring indicators, such as disease incidence or quality-of-care metrics, are biased, leading to misinterpretations and potentially wrong public health decisions. This bias can also lead to incorrect estimates of the association between an exposure and a health event due to differences in detection modalities of the event across exposure subgroups. In this talk, I will discuss this bias, its impact on cancer epidemiology, and how to prevent it.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this talk, attendees will:

• Know what is surveillance bias and several conditions exposed to this bias;
• Understand the impact of surveillance bias on cancer epidemiology;
• Know the causes of this bias and how to prevent it.

Speaker Bio

Arnaud Chiolero, is an epidemiologist and public health physician (board certified). He is a full professor of population health at the University of Fribourg and an adjunct professor at the School of Global and Population Health at ÎÛÎÛ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ University. He is the director of the Population Health Laboratory (#PopHealthLab) at the University of Fribourg and academic co-director of the Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+). Initially trained as a medical doctor (MD) at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, he trained in epidemiology at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands (MSc) and at ÎÛÎÛ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ University in Montreal in Canada (PhD). He leads epidemiological research focusing on the life course epidemiology of chronic diseases and public health surveillance.