Program Description

The goal of this program is to introduce participants to the data, tools, and methods of population health research. Participants will develop the skills necessary to formulate and answer consequential research questions in population health research drawing on theory and methods from epidemiology, biostatistics, and the broader social sciences.

By the end of the program participants will have prepared an extended research abstract on a topic of their interest in population health research. The program runs over seven weeks.

Competencies:

Upon completing this program, participants will be able to:

• Define the core principles and foundations of population health research;
• Generate meaningful research questions, articulate empirically testable hypotheses, conduct a systematic literature review, and conceptualize the arc of a research project;
• Articulate the utility and applications of descriptive epidemiology;
• Describe the advantages and disadvantages of different epidemiologic study designs;
• Identify key sources of population data and understand their strengths and weaknesses;
• Calculate measures of disease occurrence and measures of association and effect;
• Critically analyze research for confounding and the presence of other sources of bias;
• Calculate statistical measures of variability and confidence intervals;
• Write a clear and effective research abstract and effectively communicate results.

Required knowledge/pre-requisites

There are no pre-requisites for this program.