Abstract: The author searches for the roots of the act of researching in order to establish routes and apply them to the field of epidemiology, from an applied viewpoint and from the stance of the health professional. Quotes are used to increase the dialectic capacity of the discourse.

PARTIDAS 
It is interesting how the word ‘investigate’ is used to solve crimes, to describe meditative insights, artistic creations, journalistic inquiries and applications of the scientific method. I believe that to investigate, ‘to look out for traces’, endeavour to discover the truth (external, interior), a language, a social representation or knowledge, answers a call: disquiet.

This call may even be socially driven; however, in terms of research, it is informed by profoundly personal reasons. It may stem from the awareness that the rules and knowledge according to which we act are constantly changing, ‘based on evidence’, as part of a dynamic we wish to be part of; it may originate in the questions, concerns, individual theories, the ‘maybes’ and the ‘why nots’, or in personal observations about situations we experience in different ways and which are poorly explained; perhaps it is the result of our awareness that our role in the world may be leaving it slightly better than when we found it.

If I begin this text with an existentialist approach, it is because I  believe that the best reason to go along and sail the seas and currents of research, including learning about it, is to acknowledge that call. As a creative, uncertain, little institutionalized, poorly valued and quite lonely process (even when working as part of a team), research has everything to be a demanding and daunting exercise, was it not for the fact that it is a fascinating journey.

ROUTES 
There are generally two routes for this journey, and they are not mutually exclusive. Actually, they see each other and they often intertwine, building their own viewpoints on the same objects, in their own way.

The first route concerns content. By mastering the conceptual models of a particular field and understanding the evolution of those models, we become interested about how they are developed, and start to note their inconsistencies and discrepancies, as well as to advance alternative hypotheses.

The second route concerns methods. Whether from a more epistemological stance (how do we know what we think we know?), or from a more practical one (for instance, in order to carry out a small project: what can we know with the information at our disposal?), we begin wishing to understand the building processes of scientific knowledge. We then understand the opportunities, constraints, vulnerabilities and potential of the various research methods applied to a more or less specific situation. We also understand that, like cooking ingredients, they can be mixed to produce new recipes, as long as we understand their properties and ‘intrinsic mechanics’.

In order to build knowledge, these courses not only intertwine, but stem from each other. Possibly, many of the discrepancies and constraints that explain a given phenomenon can be attributed to distinct methods used in its study. To explore and test hypotheses also makes us look into research methodologies. On the other hand, the intrinsic mechanics and the properties of methods require an action field and a context. Mathematical formulae and study designs alone are one-dimensional: without a field for action, they do not possess the relevance to enable us to understand the richness of their application. 

Methods and content are like two legs of the same body: moving just one leg will not take us very far. It is acknowledged that this body has other parts that can be individual routes: ethics, management, communication, politics, and education (the list could be extended). These parts make the route richer and the journey truly a fascinating one.

ITINERARIES
Epidemiology offers a language for the construction of knowledge applied to human health. It is not the only one, for which reason it goes hand in hand with biology, sociology, and all the health knowledge fields outside epidemiological methods (for instance, health policies).
However, it establishes a dialogue and builds with the remaining areas, as part of its mission to understand and describe health phenomena and apply that knowledge to control health issues.

Accordingly, epidemiology forms a body of instruments and representation processes of health knowledge which enables critical analysis, the construction of knowledge and support to decision-making [individual, abstract (for instance, clinical guidelines), population, and political]. In the struggle for knowledge, epidemiology deals with the art of combat. It is not sufficient on its own, but it grows by serving other human health fields and establishes links with similar areas (economics, management, ecology, sociology, etc.)

GUIDES
Returning to the travelling analogy and to the ‘act of moving about’, there are gradients in the quality of that experience: we may be just passing by, choose a more or less short route, use a guide, benefit from the fact of having a friend living in the area, or even live there on a temporary basis. The possibility of understanding those other realities depends on that quality.

It is through training that guidance, preparation, follow-up and accomplishment of this journey takes place. The Postgraduate Programme in Epidemiology (http://edu.uepid.org), whose backbone is the Master Degree in Epidemiology, aims to be the place where the learning, practice and integration of epidemiology occurs, with a view to promoting critical competence, autonomy and networked teams within a research community, regardless of the field of research.

The door is wide open. Come in to know us.

Paulo Jorge Nicola
Guest Assistant
Institute of Preventive Medicine
pnicola@fm.ul.pt