Introduction
I am a physician epidemiologist and an Assistant professor in the School of Public Health and Health Systems at the University of Waterloo. My research interests focus on syndemics of infectious diseases like HIV, hepatitis B and C, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections. My research aims to evaluate the determinants of syndemics, extend the syndemic framework to non-communicable diseases and cancers, and design and evaluate prevention strategies to address syndemics. My other areas of interest include the development and application of methods for analysis of big data, global health, and spatial epidemiologic methods and their application to public health practice. In addition to the above, I have worked internationally in academia and the development sector (World Health Organization and UNICEF).
Expert
Dr. Zahid Butt is a physician epidemiologist and an Assistant professor in the School of Public Health and Health Systems at the University of Waterloo. His research applies a ‘syndemic’ framework to examine inter-relationships between epidemics of infectious diseases, social disparities, co-morbidities, and substance use, using epidemiological, statistical, spatial and machine learning methods. Dr. Butt research activities in the domain of public health, big data analytics and spatial epidemiology have led to more than 100 papers in several high impact journals such as The Lancet, Lancet infectious diseases, Nature, BMJ etc. He is an associate editor for BMC Public Health and section Editor-in-Chief for International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Fields of expertise: Health and wellbeing, Reduction of inequalities / equity / poverty eradication, Water and sanitation