EPI 203: Epidemiologic Methods (Fall 2015)

All clinical research regardless if classified as patient-oriented, translational, epidemiologic, comparative effectiveness, behavioral, outcomes, or health services research has individual human beings or groups of human beings as its unit of observation. As such, principles of epidemiology serve as the basic scientific methodology of all clinical research.

The objectives of this course are to provide a detailed understanding of the basic principles of epidemiology including:

  • diverse array of study designs, and their theoretical interrelatedness, available in clinical and epidemiologic research;
  • importance of measurement;
  • different types of measures of disease occurrence;
  • methods to measure risk factor ("exposure") - disease ("outcome") association;
  • measures of attributable risk;
  • interaction;
  • approaches to identify and minimize selection, measurement and confounding bias; and
  • conceptual motivation for more sophisticated methods (e.g., regression or marginal structural approaches) to manage confounding, which are increasingly common tools in epidemiologic analyses.

EPI 204: Clinical Epidemiology (Fall 2015)

Instruction in the research implications of evidence-based clinical medicine, including the specifications of diagnostic tests, screening tests, and prognostic tests.

EPI 240: Qualitative Research Methods (Fall 2015)

Qualitative methods have long played an important role in the social sciences, including anthropology and sociology. In these fields, observational methods are common and qualitative approaches are integrated into research training. In the last few decades, qualitative methods have become more prominent in public health, health services, and clinical research. These fields have typically favored experimental and quasi-experimental designs, so clinical and translational researchers interested in qualitative methods may benefit from tailored research training.

This course is designed to provide such a tailored training via a practical and hands-on introduction to the use of qualitative methods in health-related research. By the end of this course, students will be able to:

  • Delineate the epistemological differences between qualitative and quantitative research approaches and describe the theoretical and practical implications of these differences for a research project;
  • Describe the basic characteristics of at least 3 qualitative approaches and analyze which approaches are appropriate to address a particular research question;
  • Use 1 qualitative approach to collect data for a question-driven research project; and
  • Undertake elementary analysis of qualitative data, including coding, using computer assisted qualitative data analysis.

EPI 242: Program Evaluation in Clinical and Public Health Settings (Fall 2015)

This course will familiarize students with different types of program and intervention evaluation, including needs assessment, formative research, process evaluation, monitoring of outputs and outcomes and impact assessment. Scholars will learn how to develop an evaluation plan and use systematically collected information about a program or intervention to: understand whether and how the program is meeting its stated goals and objectives; improve program effectiveness; and/or make decisions about future programming.  This course will focus on evaluation conducted in clinical and public health settings.

Course learning objectives include:

  • Explain the main concepts/terms and key elements used in program evaluation;
  • Understand the role of evaluation in planning and implementing health programs;
  • Explore diverse types/approaches and models used in program evaluation in public health and clinical settings;
  • Become familiar with methods and data collection strategies used in program evaluation; and
  • Identify effective dissemination strategies for the results of evaluation.

EPI 253: Infectious Diseases Epidemiology (Fall 2015)

Instruction in intermediate and advanced concepts in infectious disease epidemiology. Topics include social network analysis, vaccine efficacy, epidemic dynamics, evaluation of communicable disease interventions, surveying hard-to-reach populations, prophylaxis and mass drug administration.

At the end of the course, scholars will be able to:

  • Use more specialized epidemiologic methods to design studies with infectious diseases as endpoints;
  • Read the infectious disease epidemiology literature; and
  • Understand more advanced epidemiologic methods used to evaluate public health intervention programs designed to control infectious diseases of public health significance.

EPI 263: Demographic Methods for Health (Fall 2015)

This seminar will cover basic demographic theory and methods, including population dynamics, fertility, mortality, migration, urbanization, aging, and family structure. The emphasis will be on how and why understanding these factors is important for public health practitioners. Furthermore, students will gain experience applying basic demographic methods to public health problems on a weekly basis in labs and through a small data analysis project of their own.

At the end of this course, scholars will be able to:

  • Understand the basics of demographic theory and methods, including population dynamics, fertility, mortality, migration, urbanization, aging, and family structure;
  • Understand the importance of demographics for public health practitioners; and
  • Describe how certain demographic phenomenon affect disease burden

EPI 264: Spatial Epidemiology (Fall 2015)

This course introduces students to the concepts, principles, and methods for the visualization and analysis of spatially referenced health data. Lectures, discussion and assignments will highlight spatial data analysis techniques with applications in malaria and other infectious and non-infectious diseases prevalent in international settings. Hands-on skills based exercises will be emphasized over lecture-based presentation of theory, so students should be prepared to be fully engaged.

At the end of this course, scholars will be able to:

  • Demonstrate proficiency in spatial data analysis techniques using open-source software including QGIS, R, SaTScan and WinBUGS (or other software for Mac users);
  • Understand the theories and assumptions of different spatial data analysis methods;
  • Conduct exploratory spatial data analysis and identify and apply the correct analytical tools for a given problem; and
  • Perform spatial regression analyses and produce basic smoothed disease maps.

BIOSTAT 200: Biostatistical Methods for Clinical Research I (Fall 2015)

This course is an introduction to the study of biostatistics. We cover types of data, their summarization, exploration and explanation. Also, we look at concepts of probability and their role in explaining uncertainty. We end with coverage of inference applied to means, proportions, regression coefficients and contingency tables. Throughout the course, the software program Stata will be used.

BIOSTAT 210: Biostatistical Methods for Clinical Research IV (Fall 2015)

This is a fourth course in statistics, covering advanced methods for building and evaluating regression models. The emphasis is on methods which cut across common families of regression models in biostatistics: predictor selection, model diagnostics and model comparison. The statistics package Stata will be used throughout the course.

Grant Writing Workshop on Mentored Career Development Awards

This course is open to all UCSF personnel with active MyAccess accounts at no charge.   Students must enroll in the course to view the materials.  Log into the CLE using a MyAccess account.  In the course administration window, click on the "Enroll me in this course" option.  Please email cdunne@psg.ucsf.edu for any questions regarding enrollment.