▎GLOBAL OUTLOOK

The NTU College of Public Health (CPH) celebrated the significant milestone of its 30th-anniversary by holding an international symposium last October. The main theme of symposium concerned the analysis and application of multiomics data in the field of public health, and the list of distinguished speakers included this year's KP Chen Memorial Lecturer Prof. George Davey Smith, FRS, Prof. Steven Hyman, Prof. Fumihiko Matsuda, Prof. Pak Chung Sham, and Prof. Cathy SJ Fann.

The KP Chen Memorial Lecture was established memory of Prof. Kung-Pei Chen, a founding father of public health education in Taiwan, to recognize individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to contemporary public health. The 2023 Laureate, Prof. Davey Smith of the University of Bristol, UK, is a clinical epidemiologist renowned for his work on improving causal inference in research on disease etiology and prevention. In his presentation, he stressed the importance of employing diverse approaches in drawing causal inferences. Often called the 'Triangulation of Evidence' method, his approach effectively mitigates the risks associated with unmeasured confounders and residual confounding, advancing the quality of public health research.

The symposium also featured four prominent speakers who offered their unique perspectives on the application of multiomics data to address unmet public health needs. Prof. Steven Hyman, a distinguished scholar in psychiatric research at Harvard University, explored the intricate topic of "From Genetics to Biological Insight in Schizophrenia, a Paradigmatic Psychiatric Disorder." Prof. Pak Chung Sham, a world-renowned genetic epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong, shared his insights on "Causal Modeling in Psychiatric Phenotypes." Meanwhile, Prof. Fumihiko Matsuda, a leading researcher in genomic medicine at Kyoto University, addressed "The Role of the Integrative Rare Disease Analysis Platform of Japan RADDAR-J in Elucidating the Pathology of Rare Disorders." Finally, Prof. Cathy SJ Fann, of Academia Sinica, gave a compelling presentation on "Big Data Applications in Genetic Research: drawing from data collected in Taiwan and the UK Biobank.”

For the past 30 years, NTU College of Public Health has led the development of public health in Taiwan. As health data analytics is expected to play an important role in improving human health and well-being, this symposium was not only a celebration of the college’s achievements but also a fanfare for its ambition to continue leading and making achievements for the next 30 years.