Bayesian Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Health Modeling 2025
The Data Science Institute of Hasselt University is excited to offer a Bayesian Workshop: Using R for Bayesian Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Health Modeling. The workshop is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to the area of Bayesian Disease mapping using R in applications to Public Health and Epidemiology. This course sequence is designed for those who want to cover mapping methods, and the use of a variety of software and variants in application to small area health data.
Introduction
Workshop: Using R for Bayesian Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Health Modeling
The Data Science Institute of Hasselt University is excited to offer a Bayesian Workshop: Using R for Bayesian Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Health Modeling. The workshop is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to the area of Bayesian Disease mapping using R in applications to Public Health and Epidemiology. This course sequence is designed for those who want to cover mapping methods, and the use of a variety of software and variants in application to small area health data. The speaker is Prof. Andrew Lawson, international renowned expert in disease mapping and spatial epidemiology.
The course will include theoretical input, but also practical elements and participants will be involved in hands-on in the use of R, BRugs (OpenBUGS), Nimble, CARBayes and INLA in disease mapping applications. Both human and veterinary examples will be covered in the course. Examples will range over congenital anomaly birth defects, cancer, foot and mouth disease, influenza and Covid-19 space-time modeling.
In the first part of the workshop, participants will gain an in-depth understanding of the basic issues, methods and techniques used in the analysis of spatial health data using a Bayesian approach with R. They will gain insight into the detailed analysis of practical problems in risk estimation and cluster detection. In the second part of the workshop, more advanced models and special topics will be discussed. Participants can separately subscribe for one or both parts of the workshop.
WHEN? October 20-21 (Part 1) and October 23-24 (Part 2)
WHERE? Hasselt University, Campus Oude Gevangenis, in Hasselt, Belgium
SPEAKER? Professor Andrew Lawson
Speaker
Andrew B. Lawson is MUSC Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biostatistics in the Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Department of Public Health Sciences, College of Medicine. He is ASA Fellow and guest professor at Hasselt University.
He has over 200 journal papers on the subject of spatial epidemiology, spatial statistics and related areas. In addition to a number of book chapters, he is the author of a number of books in areas related to spatial epidemiology and health surveillance. The most recent of these is Lawson, A. B. (2021) Using R for Bayesian Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Health Modeling. CRC Press. This book will be a course text for the workshop. A copy of this book is included in the fee for the course.
Prof. Lawson is founding editor of the Elsevier journal Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology, and advisor in disease mapping and risk assessment for the World Health Organization (WHO). Prof. Lawson has delivered many short courses in different locations over the last 25 years on Bayesian Disease Mapping with Win/OpenBUGS, CARBayes and INLA, Spatial Epidemiology and disease Clustering.
Day 1-2: Basic Introduction on October 20-21
The first part of the course consists of sessions dealing with:
- Basic Concepts of Bayesian methods and disease mapping
- Bayesian computation: MCMC and alternatives
- R graphics for spatial Health Data
- Bayesian Hierarchical Models for disease mapping (BHMs): demo of models with R2OpenBUGS
- Nimble for BHMs
- CARBayes and INLA
- Space-time modeling and clustering in Nimble
- Space-time mechanistics (infectious disease) modeling in Nimble
Coffee breaks and lunch are foreseen
Day 3-4: Special Topics on October 23-24
In the second part of the course, special topics and more advanced models will be discussed. This will include:
- Review of BHMs
- Individual level: case event data
- Individual level: spatial survival
- Special Spatial models: zero-inflacted regression, GWR
- Multivariate and multi-scale models
- Measurement error and SEMs and mediaction
- Clustering and latent structure in space and space-time
- Disease Map Surveillance
Coffee breaks and lunch are foreseen
Registration Information
Registrations are open!
You can register here.
Registration rates:
Early bird rate (deadline 30 September):
PhD students UHasselt: € 250 (part 1), € 250 (part 2), € 400 (part 1 and 2)
Academic staff (non-UHasselt): € 300 (part 1), € 300 (part 2), € 500 (part 1 and 2)
Private sector: € 350 (part 1), € 350 (part 2), € 600 (part 1 and 2)
Regular rate (from 1 October):
PhD students UHasselt: € 300 (part 1), € 300 (part 2), € 500 (part 1 and 2)
Academic staff (non-UHasselt): € 350 (part 1), € 350 (part 2), € 600 (part 1 and 2)
Private sector: € 400 (part 1), € 400 (part 2), € 700 (part 1 and 2)
The registration fee includes courses, handbook and catering (coffee breaks and lunches).
Deadline for registration is October 15.
Venue
The two 2-day workshops will take place at Hasselt University, Campus Oude Gevangenis, in Hasselt, Belgium.
Accommodation
You can find tourist info at: https://www.visithasselt.be/en
Some hotels in Hasselt:
Thonissenlaan 37, 3500 Hasselt
Thonissenlaan 52, 3500 Hasselt