Master of Science : Clinical Investigation Curriculum

CORE REQUIREMENTS

PM 410 Introduction to SAS for Windows

This full semester course, targeted at MPH students with an understanding of statistics and study design, provides an introduction to the SAS analytic software for Windows. Through a mixture of lectures and applied lab sessions, students gain experience using the SAS/BASE and SAS/STAT systems for the management and analysis of public health data. Building on linkages to the department's biostatistics and epidemiology curriculum, this course emphasizes the integration of SAS into the research environment and the development of extensible statistical computing skills.

PM415 Principles of Epidemiology

Introduction to Epidemiology is intended to provide an overview of concepts dealing with the study of the distribution of diseases and their causes in populations. It will define epidemiologic terms, introduce methods used to describe diseases in populations, provide an overview of ways to determine the causes of disease, and apply epidemiologic principles to the evaluation of preventive and therapeutic interventions. This will be carried out by lecture presentations supported by laboratory problems and small group discussions. The course will use L. Gordis, Epidemiology, 3rd Edition. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Co., 2004 as a textbook, supplemented with additional readings.

PM 449 Writing Workshop

This two-part course helps students gain proficiency as writers. The first part of the course consists of three required seminars with the instructor. A smaller group will be chosen, based on evaluation of writing assignments, to continue working with the instructor. These individuals will meet regularly with the instructor, one on one, to review work in progress. Such projects may range from research papers to review articles to independent research.

PM478 Workshop in Scientific Communication

The workshop in Scientific Communication focuses on science writing, poster creation, publication in scientific and medical journals and building skills to effectively interact with the media. The science writing portion of the course will cover what constitutes good writing. Students will also be required to do in-class writing assignments, which will be reviewed and critiqued. They will also be expected to rewrite their material. Strategies will be provided to reduce the difficulties many students face with writing assignments. Classes will focus on how students can become effective and accurate writers.

PM484 Cost Effectiveness Research

Cost-effectiveness research is increasingly used to evaluate alternative choices in clinical practice and to enlighten and inform health policy determinations. In this course, students are introduced to the methods and objectives of cost-effectiveness research, as well as to important study design issues that distinguish these investigations from other clinical research studies. They will be introduced to the concepts of economic costs and various strategies of incorporating costs into such analyses. They will learn various research methods to conduct such studies including decision modeling, clinical-economic trials, and program evaluations. Students will also participate in a lab to learn decision analysis software such that they can perform analyses themselves as a class project. Prerequisite: at least one semester of graduate level statistics.

PM 416: Advanced Epidemiologic Methods

This course provides an in-depth coverage of the quantitative methodologic issues associated with population-based epidemiologic research. Issues specific to study design, conduct, and analysis are emphasized. Topics to be covered include: Issues in study design, topics in measurement, confounding, effect modification, and multivariate analytic techniques including linear and logistic regression, Kaplan Meier survival analysis, and Cox proportional hazards modeling. Prerequisite: PM 415 and one semester of graduate level statistics.

BST 463 Introduction to Biostatistics

This course is an introduction to the ideas and techniques of statistical analysis with an emphasis on applications in the health sciences. Practical application rather than theoretical development of statistical methods is the focus here, and very little mathematical background (beyond high school algebra) is assumed. However, we will emphasize important ideas and concepts underlying the methods and not just statistical “recipes” (and software).

BST 465 Design of Clinical Trials

This course is designed for individuals interested in both the scientific and organizational aspects of clinical trials to provide a thorough understanding of the rationale for, and implications of, basic aspects of clinical trial design, including: specification of hypotheses and objectives, outcome variables, and inclusion/exclusion criteria; randomization; blinding; and choice of an appropriate control group.

BST 525 Introduction to Health Informatics

This introductory course will survey various topics in health informatics. The teaching will focus on the basic concepts of research questions, common methodologies, and pioneering work in the field. Students are expected to have either a health sciences background (health service research, public health, nursing, etc.) or a technical background (statistics/biostatistics, computer science, biomedical engineering, etc.).

ELECTIVES

PM 411 Health Care for the Elderly: Financing & Organization

The aging of the US population and the projected growth of the “oldest old” will have a major impact on the demand for and the supply of services and resources needed to care for this population. Already today, older Americans with serious and disabling chronic conditions are the largest, highest-cost, and fastest-growing consumer group. What are the needs of this growing demographic? How is the US health care system responding to those needs? What kinds of services are available, how are they managed and are they sufficient? Who provides the care? How much do those services cost? Who pays for what?  What about quality of care? These and other issues important to the financing and the organization of health services for older Americans are examined in the course of this 3-credit seminar. (every other spring)

PM 412 Survey Research

This course will present students with an overview of the role of survey methods and tools in the research process, with a particular focus on survey research applications in health care research and epidemiology.  The course will incorporate an integrated perspective, which includes a qualitative approach to conducting appropriate and accurate survey research.Components of the course include survey item design, recruitment and follow-up strategies, pilot testing methods, IRB considerations, and psychometric issues. (spring)

PM 413 Field Epidemiology

This course will provide an overview of the practical applications of theoretical epidemiological concepts in the study of the distribution of diseases and their causes in populations.  Emphasis will be on the hands-on discussion of basic methods in epidemiologic research, including literature review; study design selection; measurement of disease; selection of relevant variables; development and administration of questionnaires; quantitative data analysis; and reporting study findings. These concepts are discussed in the context of case studies and special topics such as outbreak investigations, cancer cluster investigations, and meta-analysis. Prerequisite: Introduction to Epidemiology or permission of the instructor (spring)

PM 414 History of Epidemiology

The overall objective of this course is to focus the attention and raise the awareness of students on the historical perspectives of epidemiology. The course will familiarize the student with the growth of epidemiology, as a basic science, and show the inter-relationship between epidemiologic methods and intellectual, social, political and technological progress that has occurred throughout history. All of these events are crucial to a deeper understanding how diseases have influenced history and what major contributions epidemiologists have made to medicine. This course will emphasize the relationship between epidemiology and other scientific disciplines by demonstrating the influence of methodologic techniques used by epidemiologists. Additionally, the framework of this course will foster an appreciation for the role of epidemiology in society through its impact on public health from its roots to its dynamic responsibilities in present trends. (Fall every other year)

PM 417 Molecular Epidemiology

Using the same paradigm as traditional epidemiology, this course will explore the opportunities for the use for increasingly powerful biologic markers of exposure, disease, or susceptibility to provide high resolution answers in relation to the causes of disease. The course will focus on the practice of molecular epidemiology, as an interdisciplinary science, and the use of biologic markers to advance our knowledge about health and disease among groups of people in a manner that is appropriate for inference to larger populations. Prerequisite: PM 415 Principles of Epidemiology (fall)

PM 418 Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention

At the completion of the course, students will be able to demonstrate their knowledge of cardiovascular disease epidemiology and prevention by listing and/or discussing the proven risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD) and the seminal studies leading to their discovery, the emerging risk factors for CHD, strategies and interventions for preventing CHD, the difference between risk markers and risk factors, the process of identifying and verifying that a risk marker is truly independent, the known and suspected risk factors for stroke and the current controversies in CVD EPI and prevention and how they have arisen. Prerequisite: PM 415 Principles of Epidemiology or taking PM 415 concurrently (spring)

PM 419 Recruitment and Retention of Human Subjects into Clinical Research

Recruitment and retention of research subjects typically focuses on determining eligibility, minimizing risk to research subjects and designing protocols that are not overly burdensome for the respondent/subject. While these concerns are important, successful and sustainable recruitment and retention extends well beyond protocol design. This course focuses on strategies to recruit and retain subjects from groups known to be ‘hard to recruit’ such individuals from disenfranchised communities (racial/ethnic minorities, homeless) and other sub-groups such as the elderly. Participants will critique and design methods comparing an ‘emic’ (insider) with an ‘etic’ (or outsider) perspective. (fall)

PM 421 US Health Care System: Financing, Delivery, Performance

In this course, we examine the organization, financing, delivery, and performance of the US health care system.  The inherent tradeoffs between access to care, cost, quality, and outcomes are considered from the perspective of the main actors in the system, i.e. patients, providers (physicians, hospitals, etc), health plans, insurers and payers. Topics include: need and access to care; health care insurance and financing; Medicare and Medicaid; managed care; service delivery; long-term care; public health; quality of care, and others. The aim of the course is to help students deepen their understanding of the health care system, strengthen their ability to synthesize the literature and assess key current policy issues, and to further develop their critical thinking skills.  (fall)

PM 422 Quailty of Care & Risk Adjustment

The purpose of this course is to explore the various methods and opportunities available to track and assess outcomes of clinical practices and medical technologies. The material covered will introduce the framework, analytic approaches, databases and settings available for studies addressing patient preferences and satisfaction, practice patterns, clinical interventions and strategies that constitute the content of health care.  The course focuses on the use of patient populations and databases as laboratories for the generation of new knowledge and information.  (fall)

PM 433 Epidemiology and Public Health of Aging

The 20th century demographic transition to an aging society is a universal phenomenon with profound implications for present and future disease patterns and health services.  This course provides students with a working knowledge of major epidemiologic studies of disease and disability associated with the aging population and of the application of contemporary public health and medical care strategies to these emerging patterns.  Concepts to be covered include compression of morbidity, functional status assessment, active life expectancy, essential roles of public health.  Student evaluation will be based upon several presentations during the course and a final paper. (fall)

PM 438 Practical Skills in Grant Writing

This course is intended to provide the student interested in a career in the life sciences with practical skills related to procuring external support for research.  The course content includes a variety of didactic lectures on grant-related topics, discussion sessions with the opportunity to examine grants that others have written, examination of tools and resources available to assist in grant writing, and the opportunity to write a grant for support of the student’s own research project and have it critiqued.  At the end of the course, the enrollee should be able to write a research grant. (spring)

PM 441 Conducting Research with Elderly Persons: Methods and Applications

The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with unique and prevalent issues, problems, difficulties, and challenges of conducting health services research with elderly persons, and to provide students with approaches and tools to address those issues and problems in order to successfully conceptualize, plan, carry out, and conclude research with the aged.  This course will focus almost exclusively on person’s age 65 and older, with special attention being paid to the old-old (those age 85 and over), people with cognitive impairment, and residents of nursing homes. (spring)

PM 442 Nutritional Epidemiology

The course is designed to give the students the tools to critically review the nutritional epidemiologic literature and to conduct epidemiologic studies of diet, nutrition, and disease.  Concepts on nutritional epidemiology will be applied to nutrition and nutritional-related disorders prevalent in the United States and globally (e.g., Descriptive epidemiology of breast-feeding, new national and international growth curves, examples of the role of diet in the prevention of chronic diseases).  The course will be focused mainly but not exclusively on maternal and child health issues.  Prerequisites:  introductory courses in epidemiology and statistics. (spring)

PM 445 Introduction to Health Services Research and Policy

This course will introduce students to the field of health services research and policy. The primary objective is making students aware that HSR&P is a multidisciplinary field, both basic and applied, that examines the use, costs, quality, accessibility, delivery, organization, financing and outcomes of health care services. The course will examine the historical development of the field, introduce the basic concepts and methods of social science research as they apply to HSR&P, provide an overview of the field’s different major theoretical foundations, and introduce students to critical reading and evaluation of the HSR&P literature. Required of all first-year HSR&P doctoral students. Open to MPH and other graduate level students with the permission of the instructor. (fall)

PM 448 Health Policy Analysis

Description

This course provides an introduction to policy analysis in the context of public health and health care. The course focuses on developing the logic and argumentative skills necessary to produce compelling analyses of existing and proposed policies. The main quantitative tools used in policy analysis will be identified. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• produce a coherent policy analysis based on existing information
• identify the main quantitative tools used for modeling and predicting policy outcomes
• identify the main quantitative tools used for policy research and evaluation.

(spring)

PM 458 Qualitative Health Care Research

Qualitative health research involves understanding issues and problems from the point-of-view of those most directly affected.  The focus is on interpretation:  how do people construct and maintain meaning?  An analysis of qualitative data generates highly contextualized accounts of people’s ideas and actions that can then be used to inform assessments, programs, policies, and evaluations.   Several “strategies of inquiry” (ethnographic, life history, case study and grounded theory) and a variety of data collection tools (participant-observation, key informant interviews, focus groups, and narrative analysis) will be covered.  Students will complete weekly exercises and work on teams conducting qualitative inquiry into a public health issue.  This learning process will prepare students to write qualitative research proposals, collect and analyze data, and generate reports.(spring)

PM 459 Assessing Health Status of Older Adults

Students typically read about various assessment instruments that are used to measure the health status of the elderly but often do not have the opportunity to administer them unless they are in a clinical educational program. The objective of this course is to give them such experience through field trips to various settings including senior centers, senior high-rise apartment buildings, assisted living facilities, adult day care programs, and nursing homes.  Assessment instruments include the SF-36 Health Survey, Activities of Daily Living and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living, the Mini Mental State Exam, the Geriatric Depression Scale, the nursing home Minimum Data Set, and several performance-based measures.  The class will be limited to 4 to 6 students, and preference will be given to students interested in receiving our Graduate Level Certificate in Health & Aging. (alternate Fall)

PM 461 Program Evaluation for Public Health

Provide MPH students with practical skills to organize and conduct credible and useful evaluations of health or human service projects or programs. Focusing on methods, this course will help students design andcritique approaches to answer two key questions central to program evaluation: Is this program working as intended? Why is this the case? Students will learn the theories behind program evaluation and how to prevent or overcome common evaluation planning and implementation challenges and pitfalls. Students will also develop additional skills in designing programs, writing objectives, working with stakeholders, establishing appropriate measures/data gathering tools, designing implementation specifications, analyzing results and presenting findings. (fall)

PM 466 Cancer Epidemiology

The purpose of this course is to provide the student with a basic understanding of the biology, prevention, treatment and burden of malignancy in the U.S.  The course will include discussions of patterns of cancer incidence, etiologic factors, individual risk assessment, stages of neoplastic development, recent laboratory techniques for measurement of biomarkers, and interventional approaches related to prevention, screening and treatment. (spring)

PM 469 Multivariate Models for Epidemiology

The purpose of this course is to provide the student with a strong understanding of and experience in the more advanced quantitative methods for the analysis of epidemiologic studies. The approach will be applied; complete formulae will be included, however, mathematical proofs will be omitted. A more detailed presentation of the analysis issues of confounding and interaction will be presented and a complete presentation of most multivariate techniques. (spring)

PM 472 Measurement & Evaluation of Research Instruments

The purpose of this course is to provide the student with a comprehensive background in the development, administration, scoring, interpretation and evaluation of research instruments for epidemiologic research purposes.  A review of the principles of survey development will begin the course, however, it will rapidly move to the comparative analysis of various instrument designs as well as testing of these tools including reliability, validity, standardization, principle components and factor analysis.(spring) 

PM 477 Advanced SAS Programming for Statistical Analyses

The purpose of this course is to provide students with advanced knowledge and experience in SAS programming for epidemiologic methods.  This course is an extension of PM 410 Introduction to Data Management and Data Analysis Using SAS and is not recommended for beginning SAS software users.  The topics include multivariate data preparation, ANOVA, linear and logistic regression, and survival analysis using Kaplan-Meier techniques and Cox proportional hazards modeling.  Prerequisites: PM 410 (or PM 429) Introduction to SAS and one semester of graduate level statistics or Permission of Instructor. (fall)

PM 484 Cost Effectiveness Research
Decision analysis is increasingly used to evaluate alternative choices in clinical practice and to enlighten and inform health policy determinations. In this course, students will be introduced to the concepts underlying the quantitative analysis of medical decisions. They will be provided with the basis to understand decision and cost-effectiveness analysis, which appear in the clinical and health services research literature as well as to be able to set up and perform such analysis themselves. Prerequisite: one semester of graduate level statistics.misconduct in research is included. Attendance is mandatory.

ELECTIVES

Three 3 credit electives.

RESEARCH

Mentored Research Experience to culminate in research paper suitable for publication.