The International Epidemiological Association (IEA) is a worldwide association with more than 2000 members in over 100 different countries, who follow the aims of the association to facilitate communication amongst those engaged in research and teaching of epidemiology throughout the world, and to encourage its use in all fields of health including social, community and preventative medicine. These aims are achieved by holding scientific meetings and seminars, by publication of journals, reports, translations of books, by contact amongst members and by other activities consistent with these aims. Members are accepted without regard to race, religion, sex, political affiliation or country of origin. and The Development of Modern Epidemiology. while the 20th WCE will be held in Anchorage, Alaska, August 2014. Regional Scientific Meetings are also held in the IEA regions during three-year periods between WCEs.
Correspondents soon felt the need to meet to discuss research and teaching and the first formal meeting took place at the Ciba Foundation in London at the end of June 1956. By this time there were 49 correspondents from 18 countries, and one of them, A. Querido of Amsterdam invited the Club to hold its First International Scientific Meeting in the Netherlands. As a consequence a Study Group on Current Epidemiological Research, supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, took place at Noordwijk in September 1957. There were 58 participants representing 44 university departments from 20 countries at this meeting. A constitution was formulated and the first executive committee was elected. The Noordwijk meeting was the first of the nineteenth international scientific meetings which have been held to date. The second was held in the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia, in 1959 when the present title of the association was adopted.
The International Journal of Epidemiology (IJE)
A decision was taken at the Sixth International Meeting in 1971 to found an international quarterly journal of epidemiology. The council believed that the journal could replace the old Bulletin in providing a link between members in intervals between international meetings by publishing association news, and serve a valuable purpose by publishing original articles in the field of epidemiology. Walter W. Holland was appointed the first editor in 1972. Between 2001 and 2016 under the editorship of George Davey Smith and Shah Ebrahim, the journal expanded. They introduced a number of new features and the positive effects of these changes are reflected in its improved impact factor (7.2 in 2015), which places it first among the international epidemiology journals.
Affiliations with international organizations
The association has a long tradition of collaboration with other organizations, particularly with the WHO and the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) and International Clinical Epidemiologic Network (INCLEN) Inclen.
The IEA became affiliated with the CIOMS in 1955 and was represented on its executive committee. This affiliation led the association to the participation in preparing the international ethical guidelines for epidemiological studies, recognized by WHO as a key reference.
Membership
In the earlier years of the IEA, British and North American members were in the majority, mainly because the association had its origins in the UK and US. The council of the association has always been very conscious of this tendency and made active efforts to broaden the representativeness of the association by encouraging members to nominate epidemiologists from other countries. These courses are addressed to epidemiologists, public health professionals, statisticians, and clinicians and include lectures, computer based analyses, exercises, discussion sessions, and practical experience in the design of a research proposal.
The future
The educational work of the IEA has always been regarded as one of its most important functions. This will continue through the media of the International Journal of Epidemiology and the International and Regional Scientific meetings. It is hoped that the IEA will be able to continue to play a part in the organization of seminars particularly in those parts of the world where epidemiology is not well developed. Owing to the lack of funds for this purpose such activities may have to be confined, for the present, to co-operation with national or international organizations, in particular the WHO, by providing faculty members and resource material rather than funds.
There was general support for continued regional development at the Seventh International Meeting and the first steps were taken towards the organization of further regional meetings. The previous council recommended that regional IEA councils covering the WHO regions should be established in order to stimulate recruitment of members and the organization of international meetings within regions. The present council consists of members from all the WHO regions and it is now considering the whole question of regional development.