Autism Speaks and the CDC have established an international information sharing network to study the epidemiology of autism

Our Mission
Autism Speaks and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are co-sponsoring an initiative to explore possible scientific opportunities in an international collaborative effort in autism epidemiology. The long range objectives of this project are to (1) Develop a network for exchange and collaboration of epidemiology activities across countries; (2) Examine successful international collaborative models applied to other health conditions and identify common features that might facilitate autism surveillance and research; and (3) Identify the unique role that epidemiology can play in understanding the causes of autism; particularly in comparisons across diverse genetic and cultural settings.

We invite researchers who are actively engaged in epidemiologic projects to collaborate with both Autism Speaks/CDC and each other to help address issues that will lead to advancing our understanding of the epidemiology of autism. Further, we are establishing workgroups that focus on the epidemiology of autism based on different types of ascertainment approaches.

The three workgroups are:

	Registry systems
	Records or service-based approach
	Developing/low service countries

We encourage you to read each of these approaches to see which best fits your current or proposed research method and population under study and to become active with us by joining one or more of these workgroups. If you decide you would like to participate in our ongoing collaboration you can join the Autism Epidemiology list-serv for periodic updates.

Learn more about the Network

Autism Speaks and the CDC meet monthly by telephone to discuss progress of the initiative and upcoming possibilities and activities. The minutes from these monthly conferences can be found here:

Download minutes from the epidemiology subcommittee monthly teleconference calls, September 2006 through December 2006

Download minutes from the epidemiology subcommittee monthly teleconference calls, January 2007 through June 2007