By Elizabeth Walsh
Last week, I hit my 2 year anniversary as an epidemiologist for KDHE. It hardly seems like I have been here for two years, but the evidence was there, right on my calendar.
I can't even begin to list all of the things I have learned since I graduated from SPH and took this position. I have learned about health promotion, chronic disease epidemiology, program evaluation, weighted data analysis, evidence-based programming, and so many more things.
And, in this next year, I have more to learn. As always, I'm expanding my horizons and taking a lead in working on descriptive epidemiology for obesity, physical activity and nutrition in Kansas. This issue really hits home for me, because I was slightly overweight as a kid and not very physically active or the best eater for a very long time. In fact, it wasn't until I was doing coursework at SPH, and specifically learning about the pathophysiology of heart disease that I really started taking better care of myself. Now, I can't imagine going back to the sedentary and fast food-eating lifestyle I used to have. I feel so much better, have so much more energy, I feel (almost) like a different person.
I realize that not everybody will look at data and scientific information and want to make a change in their lives. But, what I'm hoping is that legislators and other decision makers will see this information and start to work on policies that will encourage people to become more physically active and make it easier for them to make healthier meals.
I'm also expanding my horizons in terms of the types of data I work with. The past two years have largely been focused on survey and evaluation data. This year, I'm working with hospital discharge, mortality and medicaid data. I will have to learn some new statistical programming techniques and think about these types of data in a slightly different way. I'm sure I'll come home at the end of the day with a mushy brain.
Can't wait.
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