Epidemiology in developing countries--some experiences from collaboration across disciplines and cultures

Epidemiology has been increasingly recognized as a public health strategy for health research, intervention and health policy making. In this communication I will focus on strategies and methods for epidemiology within the context of working together across disciplines and cultures. That problems are local but methods global is one of the immediate lesions from these collaborations as well as the obvious awareness that no one can be an expert on others. Our experience from collaborative research and research in Sweden is also that of a mutual benefit between Swedish and development research. This also applies to research training and capability strengthening where a close connection between field research and training is needed.