Epi Wonk (that’s me) has a Ph.D. in epidemiology. I worked for more than 30 years as a professor in medical schools and schools of public health and as a senior epidemiologist at the CDC. I have been the editor of three medical journals. I am now retired.

Much of the work in autism is epidemiological in nature. There is a lot of basically “armchair” epidemiology that goes in in the blogs. It is good to see the views of someone who actually knows epidemiology.

It’s well worth reading epiwonk and keeping track of the autism posts there.

If you are wondering, they are very easy to “attend”. You can either call in to a listen-only line or you can also watch the presentations they are working on. For this meeting, the presentation wasn’t as useful since they weren’t changing foils very often. Listener’s got most of the gist without the slides.

That said, I wasn’t able to listen to the whole meeting, but here are some impressions of what I did hear.

The implementation group is charged with “implementing” the strategic plan. No surprises there. They are not supposed to rewrite or reinterpret the strategic plan. Most of the meeting was really centered on “How much will it cost to meet this goal”. People could say things like, “We think this could be a supplemental funding to an existing project”. Such funding would make the research start sooner and, presumably, be cheaper.

Estimates for the costs had an amazingly large range. As in, one group would estimate at, say, $2M, and another group would say, $25M. A lot has to do with assumptions. Starting an entirely new project is more expensive than using existing research teams with existing cohorts, for example.

Some of the discussion crossed the line into remolding the strategic plan, but the chair was pretty good at getting things back on track. By lunch, though, they were way behind schedule.

One note: I was very impressed with Wolf Dunaway. He is an autistic adult. Budgeting is not his area of expertise (as far as I can tell). But, he was giving really good suggestions throughout.

The first blog I’ve chosen* is “AutismVox“. Kristina Chew writes it. Kristina (just in case you didn’t follow the link) is a professor of classics. She writes about her family, their experiences with autism, plus current events in autism, autism science and autism politics.

She is prodigious. She also get’s good information and get’s it fast. I’ve gotten what I considered to be pretty fresh information only to find that Kristina already has commented on it on her site.

She covers some of the controversial subjects, and that sometimes brings some, well, spirited comments. Kristina keeps the discussions on a very polite level.

Anyway, it’s worth taking a look: AutismVox.

*Edit: note that I posted one other blogroll description first. This one was the first I wrote.

Translating Autism is an autism research blog intended to rapidly disseminate the latest scientific findings related to the nature, causes, & treatments of autism spectrum disorders. Only a minuscule portion of the autism research ever reach parents, educators and consumers, and this blog was created to help close that gap. In this blog I present scientific findings with some, but minimal, editorial content. I review the latest scientific studies published in peer-reviewed journals and translate these findings into applicable and useful information for parents, teachers, clinicians

Also, from his FAQ

I’m Nestor Lopez-Duran Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and neuroscience researcher working at a university-based child psychiatric institute in the mid west

There isn’t a lot of discussion on that blog, but it is one that I think should be on everyone’s watch list.

Follow the link above for a description of the IACC, but it is basically what it sounds like: a committee to coordinate the government’s research efforts in autism.

Copied below is the email discussing this. This is exactly the sort of thing that I’d like to point out, but it doesn’t belong on the main site. Hence, the reason I added the blog.

The meeting is for the “Strategic Planning Implementation Workgroup”. A little explanation: There’s the IACC, which I think of as the “main committee”. Then, there has been a “working group” on creating a “strategic plan” for the IACC. This is the document that, when finalized, will explain what the IACC has agreed is the pathway for research. The group that is meeting on the 8th is the workgroup that will discuss how to actually implement the strategic plan. My expectation: a pretty dull meeting discussing details of how budgets should be calculated and other such matters. Doesn’t mean I won’t listen in as much as I can.

There will be a meeting of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) Strategic Planning Implementation Workgroup on August 8, 2008 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT.  The purpose of the meeting is to discuss budgetary requirements for the IACC Strategic Plan for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Research.  Workgroup findings will be forwarded to the IACC for consideration and discussion at the next committee meeting on November 21, 2008.

Audio of this workgroup meeting will be accessible to the public via a teleconference phone link, and web-based access to information will be displayed at the meeting via computer/projector.  To access the meeting, please visit the following web address:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/250792981

The call-in phone number is: (888) 455-2920.  The pass-code necessary to access the meeting is 3857872.

In-person attendance at the meeting will be limited due to space available at the Neuroscience Center, Conference Room A, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Rockville, MD 20892.

The contact person for this meeting is:

Azik Schwechter, Ph.D.

National Institute of Mental Health, NIH

6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 8203a, MSC 9657 Rockville, MD 20852

(301) 443-7613

schwechtera@mail.nih.gov

Please Note: The meeting will be open to the public through a conference call phone number and a web-based presentation tool on the Internet. Individuals who participate using these electronic services and need special assistance, such as captioning of the conference call or other reasonable accommodations, should submit a request prior to the meeting.

Members of the public who participate using the conference call phone number will be able to listen to the meeting but will not be heard. There may be an opportunity for members of the public to submit written comments during the workgroup meeting through the web presentation tool. Submitted comments will be reviewed after the meeting. If you experience any technical problems with the conference call-in phone number or web presentation tool, please contact GoToWebinar at (800) 263-6317.

To attend this meeting, the following computing capabilities are required: A) Internet Explorer 5.0 or later, Netscape Navigator 6.0 or later or Mozilla Firefox 1.0 or later; B) Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server or Vista; C) Stable 56k, cable modem, ISDN, DSL or better Internet connection; D) Minimum of Pentium 400 with 256 MB of RAM (Recommended); E) Java Virtual Machine enabled (Recommended).