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IJE Advance Access published online on July 26, 2007
International Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/ije/dym152
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Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association © The Author 2007; all rights reserved.

Commentary: The rise and rise of corporate epidemiology and the narrowing of epidemiology's vision

Neil Pearce

Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University Wellington Campus, Private Box 756, Wellington, New Zealand.

E-mail: n.e.pearce@massey.ac.nz

Accepted 7 February 2007

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Reports of the impending death of epidemiology1 have proven premature. The year 2000 dawned, and our computer systems, and our system of epidemiological research, both continued to function. When judged by the numbers of epidemiology journals, publications and academic positions, the field is clearly thriving.

Nevertheless, to have survived is not necessarily enough, and more is not necessarily better. The Rolling Stones have also survived since the 1960s, and sell more albums and concert tickets than ever, even though their ages passed their IQs in the 1990s and Keith Richards was lost to follow-up back in about 1975. When the current state of epidemiology is assessed in terms of quality rather than quantity, it is arguable that Ken Rothman's pessimistic vision of decline1 has partly been realized. The ‘golden age’ of risk factor epidemiology seems to have passed. The major discoveries (e.g. tobacco smoking and lung cancer, asbestos and lung . . . [Full Text of this Article]


   The scope and vision of epidemiology
 

   Corporate epidemiology
 

   Conclusions
 

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