Epidemiology

• SPH EP 815: Epidemiologic Modeling
  This course provides students who have completed EP813 with an opportunity to apply epidemiologic concepts to the analysis of observational datasets. Students learn strategies for building epidemiologic regression models using SAS software and examine key issues with respect to exposure, such as classifying time-varying exposures and comparing what is measured to biologically relevant. Also, the course emphasizes appropriate interpretation of results given a study's specific design, limitation, and potential epidemiologic biases. BS852 complements this course and may be taken concurrently. This course should be taken before EP817.
• SPH EP 817: A Guided Epidemiology Study
  This is an upper-level , hands-on seminar course, which teaches a small group of students how to develop and conduct a hypothesis-based study, using datasets that are currently available to the instructors. Through a combination of workshops, written assignments, and oral presentations, students develop hypotheses, conduct literature reviews, perform data analyses, and write each section of a manuscript. The final project requires the student to integrate all sections into a complete paper for journal submission. This course prepares students to write thesis proposals and manuscripts.
• SPH EP 830: Drug Epidemiology
  This course (formerly EP756) focuses on the research methods particular to the field of drug epidemiology. This course covers post-marketing drug safety research methods using observational data to detect adverse reactions of drugs as used in daily practice; it does not cover clinical trials. Students achieve sufficient familiarity with the field to be able to design an appropriate drug epidemiology study using the data resources referred to during the course. The role of spontaneous reporting of adverse reactions, the FDA, the drug industry, and academia are discussed. The class includes lectures by experts working in the field, critiques of literature, a project where students design a study to answer a question in the field of pharmacoepidemiology and a written final exam.
• SPH EP 854: Advanced Epidemiology (formerly Modern Epidemiology)
  This course covers the theory and application of key principles and methods of epidemiologic research in depth. The topics include causal models, confounding, randomization, interaction, statistical analysis and inference, and causal inference. Special emphasis is given to the meaning and interpretation of p-values, confidence intervals, and likelihoods. Alternative approaches are identified for selecting and interpreting measures of disease frequency and measures of effect. Guidance is offered for determining objectives and strategies in study design and analysis, especially for case-control research. Methods are presented for the assessment and control of confounding, misclassification bias, and selection bias. Strengths and weaknesses of standardization, pooling, modeling, and exposure-response analysis are reviewed. Formerly called "Modern Epidemiology."
• SPH EP 855: Advanced Epidemiology Seminar: Issues in Study Design
  This course is structured around reading and discussing both historical and current methodological papers. The first section of the course focuses on papers by early theoreticians and methodologists. The second section focuses on contemporary methodologic questions. Substantive areas may evolve and vary over time. Recent topics have included case-control studies, study efficiency, measures of effect, exposure misclassification, sensitivity analysis, casual diagrams, and direct and indirect effects.
• SPH EP 856: Selected Topics in Epidemiologic Methods
  Course focuses on advanced design and analysis topics. Three to five topics will be covered from the following list of topics: Case-crossover / case-specular design and analysis; G-estimation / IPTW / marginal structural models / nested marginal structural models; Bias analysis; Propensity scores / disease scores / other scoring; Instrumental variables and aggregate analysis; Hierarchical modeling; Bayesian analysis; Missing data methods; Longitudinal data analysis. For each topic, there will be a week of reading and review on the theory, a week introducing an applied example, followed by a week of group or individual work during which the example problem will be solved by conventional and then also the advanced method. We will reconvene for a last week when the results of the analytic work will be reviewed and compared across groups and individuals.
• SPH EP 857: Design and Conduct of Cohort Studies
  This is a third-level epidemiologic methods course intended for advanced Masters and Doctoral students who desire to build depth and nuance in their understanding of cohort study design and conduct. The course will build on classic and state-of-the-art papers which focus in depth on various topics such as selection of appropriate measure of excess risk and intermediate endpoints (theory and practice). For each topic, methodologic readings will be linked back to concrete examples of cohort study design, with special emphasis on practical aspects of study conduct.
• SPH EP 858: Design and Conduct of Case-Control Studies
  This course will develop students? practical knowledge of the design and conduct of case-control studies. It will cover the relationship between cohort and case-control studies and study design issues, including identification of a study base, selection of cases and controls, collection of exposure information, sources of bias, and matching. Published papers will be used to illustrate design, bias, and analytic issues through reading and discussion. Each class includes a lecture and discussion of assigned articles.
• SPH EP 871: Advanced Topics in Epidemiology
  This advanced course covers selected epidemiologic topics in greater depth than in intermediate epidemiology courses. For specific information, please refer to the SPH schedule packet on the SPH Registrar's Office web site.
• SPH EP 915: Research Methodology and Medical Literature
  This course provides the student with a rigorous approach to critical reading of the medical literature. Each week articles reporting on research using varied designs and methods are reviewed in order to illustrate the application of epidemiologic principles. By the end of the course, the student is able to critique an article and identify its strengths and weaknesses. MPH students may take EP915 or EP914 or their combination for no more than 4 credits.
• SPH EP 980: Continuing Study
  PhD, DSc, and MS in Epidemiology students who have completed all academic course requirements, must register for Continuing Study every Fall and Spring semester until they have successfully defended their theses/dissertations and have graduated from SPH. Students are charged the equivalent of two credits of tuition, the student health insurance fee, and are certified as full time.

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