Evidence Based Policy Making

The 174th Cutter Lecture on Preventive Medicine
Sponsored by the Department of Epidemiology

Speaker:

Prof. Dr. Karl Lauterbach
Federal Minister of Health, Germany
Adjunct Professor
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Abstract:

We live in an age of accelerating change of our natural, technological as well as social environment. At the same time as climate change is putting at risk our very conditions of living, new technology provides the means for coping with many challenges, climate change included. The accelaration of changes of our natural and technological environment makes it mandatory that scientific and technological advances are introduced into public policy making, both more reliably and faster.  Epidemiology is a central methodology for many of the scientific questions that need to be addressed, gaining eminent importance. I will try to give examples how this challenge is dealt with, from personal experience and with examples of the current German government policy making.