Academic

As a PhD researcher at the Scientific Institute of Public Health Belgium and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven I study statistical methods and data visualisation techniques in environmental epidemiology and aim to use these tools to find new insights in disease aetiology. I am particularly interested in building correct statistical models in ecological studies - relating health outcomes and exposures on an areal level - and the tools to do this kind of studies in a generic, more automated way.

My PhD research consists of three main subjects:

  • NUCABEL-2/SAHSBEL study: investigating the effect of living in the vicinity of nuclear sites in Belgium
  • The analysis of the biomonitoring of residents and rescue workers after the train accident in Wetteren, Belgium
  • Radon and cancer in Belgium

These three subjects are all prime examples of studies in the field of environmental epidemiology. The fourth main goal is to develop a generic software framework to handle the common tasks in each of these studies (data storage, quality checks, statistical analyses, information summarisation, visualisation and distribution, etc.).

Personally my prime interests lie in innovative data visualisation techniques and the accompanying web services: I believe research in Public Health should be as accessible as possible to the population and I strive to make the results of all my research as open as possible. To this aim I am a contributor and editor at Epi-Scoop, a periodical aimed at professionals in Public Health and medical doctors.

In my work I use many tools, including PostgreSQL and PostGIS as spatial relational databases, various R packages such as rgdal, spdep, ggplot2, plyr, shiny, etc. and d3 and leaflet leveraging javascript as visualisation powerhouse.

This blog and corresponding GitHub repository serve as an overview of some of academic work, however as a PhD student in Public Health some of my work is restricted due to privacy issues. My C.V. can be found here.

Working Papers

The papers listed below are in various stages of preparation, review and revision. These are not yet available for citation.

  • T. De Smedt, K. De Cremer, C. Vleminckx, S. Fierens, B. Mertens, I. Van Overmeire, M. Bader, P. De Paepe, T. Goen, B. Nemery, T, Schettgen, C. Stove, H. Van Oyen, J. Van Loco, A. Van Nieuwenhuyse. Acrylonitrile exposure in the general population following a major train accident in Belgium: a human biomonitoring study.
  • A. Van Nieuwenhuyse, S. Fierens, T. De Smedt, K. De Cremer, C. Vleminckx, B. Mertens, I. Van Overmeire, M. Bader, P. De Paepe, T. Goen, B. Nemery, T, Schettgen, C. Stove, H. Van Oyen, J. Van Loco. Acrylonitrile exposure assessment in the emergency responders of a major train accident in Belgium: a human biomoniyoring study.
  • T. De Smedt, K. Simons, C. Faes, A. Van Nieuwenhuyse, G. Molenberghs. A novel method to alleviate potential ecological bias related to radon exposure and its relation to thyroid cancer.

Conference Presentations and Posters

  • T. De Smedt, K. Simons, J. Francart, G. Molenberghs, A. Van Nieuwenhuyse. Alleviating ecological bias in linking Radon exposure to acute childhood leukaemia. Oral presentation at Environment and Health - Bridging South, North, East and West. Conference of ISEE, ISES and ISEQ. Basel, Switzerland 19-23 August 2013.[Abstract][Presentation]
  • T. De Smedt, K. Simons, J. Francart, A. Poffijn, G. Molenberghs, A. Van Nieuwenhuyse. Alleviating ecological bias in linking radon exposure to health outcomes. Poster presentation at Environment and Health - Bridging South, North, East and West. Conference of ISEE, ISES and ISEQ. Basel, Switzerland 19-23 August 2013.[Abstract][Presentation]