In 2020 our Institute managed to adapt to the limitations imposed by Covid-19 and continue our work, albeit, remotely. During the year of 2020 we trained 2 fellows, and published 3 papers including: Iron Supplementation for the Treatment of Breath-Holding Spells: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Healthy Behaviour Adherence: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-2016 and The assessment of drug safety for the foetus. In addition to the published papers, other projects were undertaken, and several of these are now marching forward toward publication.

Our research mission during 2020 was (and continues to be) public health research and thus far we have focused our attention on lifestyle contributions to health, and pediatric (including adolescent) epidemiology. Our mission however is not limited as we encourage our fellows to find unique public health issues and explore them. Our current emphasis on lifestyle and youth stem from my philosophy that health is closely connected to the way we live and our health habits, and that a health focus should begin early in life before too much damage has occurred. Frankly I worry about our youth and how society has changed their lifestyle. Diets are poor, activity is less, screen time is excessive, and many chemicals are consumed.

Our funding raising activities in 2020 have also positioned us to expand our efforts in 2021. Several institutions and several individual donors have generously contributed. Our capital base now allows us to have a dedicated biostatistician, up to three full-time equivalent (annual) fellows and an Associate Director. We also expanded our board to directors to five members.

Because of our funding raising activities and our newly expanded organization, 2021 promises to be a great year for our Institute and hopefully we will manage to equip our fellows with valuable research skills and produce many manuscripts that can be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

A special thank you to our external donors including Florida Heart, Seymour Goldblatt, and Milton Koenigsberg.

Another special thank you to our board of directors including Milt Koenigsberg, Dr. Gary Goldman, Dr. Gary Abrams, and Nancy Cavalie as well as our academic collaborators including Doctors Goldman, Abrams, Passman and Landy.

Finally, I want to thank our 2020 fellows Anna Rabil and Ana Williams.

Our Institute is off to a wonderful start, and everyone involved cherishes our mission to train our future public health researchers, and to produce important scientific research.

Sincerely,

Eric Hecht MD, PhD

Executive Director and Board Member

Institute of Etiological Research