Beyond numbers: humanising public health to address health inequities (from ESCAIDE 2025)

Topic outline

• Beyond numbers: humanising public health to address health inequities

  Beyond numbers: humanising public health to address health inequities

  This session was held as a part of ESCAIDE 2025, ECDC's annual conference on applied infectious disease epidemiology. 

  Want to know more?

  You can find more information about ESCAIDE here: https://www.escaide.eu, and about ECDC's work here: https://ecdc.europa.eu.
• Objectives

  Objectives

  After completing this activity, participants should be able to:

  • Recognise the interplay between data and human experience, understanding how statistics, interventions, and measurable outcomes gain meaning when paired with stories, emotions, and lived experiences.
  • Apply art-inspired methods in public health that integrate quantitative evidence with the voices of vulnerable populations, particularly children and older people. 
  • Translate data into accessible narratives, describing approaches to make public health data understandable, relatable, and actionable for communities without compromising scientific integrity. 
  • Bridge people and public health, learning on how combining tangible data with intangible experiences can close the gaps between individuals and public health systems, making interventions more inclusive, responsive, and participatory.
• Watch the session

  Watch the session

  
  
• Summary of the content

  Summary of the content

  Summary of the content

  This presentation is part of a plenary session held at ESCAIDE 2025, titled ‘Beyond numbers: humanising public health to address health inequities’. Moving beyond traditional approaches, public health systems need to become more resilient and inclusive by recognising that meaningful evidence extends beyond statistics to include lived experiences and community voices.

  The discussion will explore how evidence can be communicated in accessible and humanising ways, demonstrating how data can be transformed into storytelling and art. Focusing on vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly, speakers will address how data-driven, inclusive strategies can help close healthcare access gaps and empower communities to co-create solutions.

  Chairs (learn more about the chairs on the ESCAIDE website)

  • Alicia Barrasa – EPIET Alumni Network, United Kingdom
  • Piotr Kramarz – Chief Scientist and Head of Unit Scientific Evidence and Communication, ECDC, Sweden

  
  

  Speakers (learn more about the speakers on the ESCAIDE website)

  • Grazia Caleo – Independent public health consultant, United Kingdom
  • Elburg van Boetzelaer – Epidemiology Advisor, Médecins Sans Frontières, Netherlands
• Additional resources

  Additional resources
  • URLCheck other ESCAIDE materials on Learning Portal
• Contacts

  Contacts

  For more information about ESCAIDE, please see www.escaide.eu, or contact the ESCAIDE team at escaide.conference@ecdc.europa.eu. 

  If you have questions regarding other training initiatives please contact: courses@ecdc.europa.eu.

  If you have technical issues please contact the ECDC Service Desk at servicedesk@ecdc.europa.eu.

  • PageLegal terms and conditions