Excerpt from: Autism Speaks (click for full article)
On the third and final day of the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), we had a special opportunity to reflect on the importance of holding this annual meeting outside North America for the first time in five years.
Our keynote speaker was Maureen Durkin, PhD, MPH, professor of population health and pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Durkin challenged us to move “toward a more inclusive world” by building on what we know about the epidemiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
The goal of autism epidemiology is to discover what causes autism and why it’s more common today than ever before. This is crucial for guiding public health decisions and healthcare strategies.
Dr. Durkin’s message wasn’t your traditional IMFAR keynote speech. It wasn’t about how the latest findings pave a clear road for future research. It was about the challenges to autism epidemiology research and how the road ahead may not be “paved” at all. It may be full of wrong turns and stumbling blocks. That is, unless we take steps toward being more “inclusive.”
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