Teaching will be delivered online over 2 full days (between 9 and 5pm). Sessions will include a mixture of live and pre-recorded lectures, live group work sessions and allocated time for guided individual tasks.

By the end of the course participants should be able to:

1. understand what infectious disease models are and when they can be used;
2. be able to actively collaborate with modellers;
3. run a simple infectious disease model using pre-written code and adapt the model;
4. interpret basic reproduction numbers;
5. understand the principles of vaccination and herd protection;
6. critically appraise published infectious disease models; and
7. understand how to incorporate economic evaluation into infectious disease models.

The course is intended for epidemiologists, public health specialists, policy makers and healthcare professionals who work in the area of infectious diseases (human and animal health).

Although the computer practicals will be in the programming language R, no knowledge of R is assumed.

This course will cover:

1. what models can be used for;
2. mechanistic versus statis models and examples of models;
3. components of a simple Susceptible-Infected-Recovered model;
4. the basic reproduction number;
5. model parameters;
6. designing a model;
7. converting a model sketch into equations;
8. simulating a model using the programming language R;
9. criteria for disease control;
10. principles of disease control through vaccination; and
11. using models for economic evaluation.

This course is taught by academics from a variety of backgrounds working within Bristol Medical School who are experts in infectious disease mathematical modelling and health economics.

To make sure the course is suitable for you and you will benefit from attending, please ensure you meet the following prerequisites before booking:

Before booking this course, please make sure you read the information provided above about the target audience and prerequisites. It is important that you have access to the relevant IT resources needed for the course and meet the knowledge prerequisites to ensure you can get the most from the course.

Bookings are taken via our online booking system, for which you must register an account. To check if you are eligible for free or discounted courses please see our fees and voucher packs page. All bookings are subject to our terms & conditions, which can be read in full here.

For help and support with booking a course refer to our booking information page, FAQs or feel free to contact us directly. For available payment options please see: How to pay your short course fees.

Participants are granted access to our virtual learning platform (Blackboard) 1 to 2 weeks in advance of the course. This allows time for any pre-course work to be completed and to familiarise with the platform.

To gain the most from the course, we recommend that you attend in full and participate in all interactive components. We endeavour to record all live lecture sessions and upload these to the online learning environment within 24 hours. This allows course participants to review these sessions at leisure and revisit them multiple times. Please note that we do not record breakout sessions.

All course participants retain access to the online learning materials and recordings for 3 months after the course. 

University of Bristol staff and postgraduate students who do not wish to attend the full course may instead register for access to the 'Materials & Recordings' version of this course: Further information and bookings.

100% of attendees recommend this course*.
*Attendee feedback from 2022-2023.

Here is a sample of feedback from the last run of the course:

"I feel much more comfortable appraising mathematical modelling papers now and understanding the equations. This will make me more comfortable collaborating with modellers in my academic work as well as understanding the utility of these papers in my field".
Course feedback, January 2023

"Overall the format worked really well with the mix of live and pre-recorded sessions.  I'm glad the actual teaching was all live and the pre-recorded examples added an extra level of depth and application of the learning from the course".
Course feedback, January 2023

"The lectures were really informative and the interactivity with the chat function etc throughout was good".
Course feedback, January 2023

"The course was really informative and met all of the learning objectives. The course facilitators were very helpful, and answered questions clearly. There was a good balance of different learning (e.g. lectures, practical's) and the materials were well organised and easy to find. The breakout rooms were also a good size to facilitate discussion, whilst ensuring that everyone could contribute".
Course feedback, January 2023

"Great examples, support and moderation in break rooms. Excellent material and excellent professors".
Course feedback, January 2023