Masters Programs in the School of Public Health

The masters programs at the Boston University School of Public Health (SPH) provide the didactic framework for the research training in the Fellowship Program. The SPH provides excellent methodological training in biostatistics and epidemiology, and other important research methods and techniques commonly used in primary care research, such as survey research, observational research designs, clinical trials, economic analysis, the assessment of health status, quality of care and appropriate service utilization, and the use of computer systems in research. Courses are taught in the late afternoon and evening, permitting the trainee time during the day to be engaged in the other aspects of the fellowship, especially supervised research and research seminars, when faculty supervisors, collaborators, research subjects and materials are most easily available. The masters programs at the SPH have grown with the existing Fellowship Program with which it has been associated since 1980. The SPH considers FM-GIM fellows to be among the strongest students at the School.

Fellows are able to enroll in either the MSc or the MPH degree programs. Research Track fellows are encouraged to enroll in the MSc program for a number of reasons. Almost all the required courses for the MSc degree are research methods courses in statistics and epidemiology that Research Track fellows need to take to gain methodologic competencies. MSc students spend less time in course work, and thus have more time to perform their research projects. The MSc program has a thesis requirement, so that each candidate must prepare a thesis proposal, organize a multidisciplinary thesis review committee composed of faculty members from the medical and public health schools, and defend the thesis. The thesis is written in the form of a scientific article intended for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, which is excellent training for fellows. The MPH degree is an option for those few fellows for whom it is a better option for long term career preparation. This might be the case for fellows interested in the content area of one of the departments in the School of Public Health, for example, maternal and child health.

The table lists the required and elective courses in epidemiology, biostatistics and other research methods courses and a brief description of their content. At a minimum, we expect our trainees to be facile with the following statistical methodologies

  1. descriptive statistics
  2. probability theory
  3. hypothesis testing
  4. measure of association and correlation
  5. multi-factor analysis of variance
  6. multiple regression
  7. logit/probit analysis
  8. discriminant analysis
  9. factor analysis
  10. non-parametric techniques
The SPH courses emphasize the appropriate and effective use of statistical methods rather than the development of statistical theory. This approach to the instruction of statistics recognizes the methodological needs and interests of primary care clinician investigators and the increasing availability of computer-based statistical packages.

RESEARCH METHODS COURSES
Course Name Description
EB703 - Biostatistics - Principles of Biostatistics
- Interpretation of statistical analyses in clinical research and literature
EB712 - Introduction to Epidemiology - Principles and methods of epidemiology for public health
- Critical interpretation and evaluation of the literature
EB813 - Intermediate Epidemiology - Simple and stratified analysis
- Hypothesis testing
- Parameter estimation
- Effect modification and confounding
EB852 - Statistical Methods for Epidemiology - Study design
- Intermediate level data analysis techniques (confounding and interaction, stratification, mulitvariate techniques)
EB762 - Clinical Epidemiology - Evaluation of diagnostic tests, decision analysis, cost effectiveness analysis
- Critical evaluation of clinical studies and methodology
- Outcomes assessment for clinical studies
EB723 - Introduction to Statistical Computing - Using statistical packages mainframe and personal computers
- Manipulating data sets
- Basic statistical procedures, such as t-tests, chi-square tests and correlation
EB805 - Intermediate Statistical Computing - File manipulation
- Multiple regression
- Analysis of variance and covariance
- Logistic regression
EB722 - Design and Conduct of Clinical Trials - Development, conduct, interpretation of clinical trials
- Experimental design methods, data management, statistical analysis of trials
EB721 - Survey Methods for Public Health - Theory and practice of conducting survey research
- Research design
- Sampling and data collection methods (survey, telephone) and instruments
SB815 - Program Evaluation Research - Designing, conducting and using research that evaluates the impact of public health programs
- Experimental and quasi-experimental studies
SB721 - Behavioral Sciences and Public Health - Learn to diagnose a public health problem
- Assess proposed public health strategies to address problem
- Identify behavioral, cultural and attitudinal factors affecting programs
- Critically evaluate public health programs
HS811 - Health Services Research Methods - How to define a health service problem
- How to conceptualize a health services research hypothesis or study objective
- Study design methods- Quality assessment techniques
- Decision analysis
- Health status and other health outcome measurement
HS837 - Measuring and Evaluation Medical Care Processes and Outcomes - Structure, process and outcome measurement in health services
- Methods for evaluation of quality of health care services
SB740 - Qualitative Research Methods - Development of research questions for qualitative research
- Data collection
- Data analysis

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