Epidemiology is the science behind every health headline — outbreaks, vaccine studies, cancer clusters, environmental exposures, pandemic models. But most people have never been taught how to think like an epidemiologist, which means they are left to interpret complex health information without the tools to evaluate it.
Dr. Paul Kilgore is a physician-epidemiologist, former CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, Wayne State University professor, and author of 150+ peer-reviewed publications. He has spent his career applying epidemiological methods to real-world health problems — from outbreak investigation to vaccine clinical trials to the Flint Water Crisis — and teaching the next generation of public health professionals to do the same.
This session makes epidemiological thinking accessible. Attendees will learn the core concepts: how disease patterns are identified, how risk is measured, how causation is distinguished from correlation, how studies are designed and evaluated, and how public health decisions are made under uncertainty. Using real-world case studies — including outbreaks Dr. Kilgore has personally investigated — the session shows how these principles apply to everyday health decisions, from evaluating a news headline to choosing a screening test.
Attendees leave thinking more critically about health information — and with a framework for making better decisions in their own lives.

Format: Keynote or educational session. Duration: 45–75 minutes. Target audience: General public, students (undergraduate and graduate), science communicators, journalists, patient advocacy groups, corporate audiences. No prior science background required. AV needs: screen, microphone, HDMI.