EPIDEMIOLOGY IN PRACTICE (2056)
ORGANISERS: Professor Betty Kirkwood, Dr Sara Thomas, Kyrstyna Makowiecka, Keith Tomlin
TIMETABLE SLOT: Term 1, Monday a.m. and Wednesday p.m. (Weeks 2-6); Monday p.m. and Wednesday p.m. (Weeks 8-12)
DATES: 03 October 2011 to 16 December 2011
AIM
To provide students with essential practical skills required when working as an epidemiologist, and to encourage students to think about the ways in which epidemiological research links into wider public health and policy issues.
OBJECTIVES
During this module students should be able to:
- assess when epidemiological evidence is sufficient to justify a public health policy or intervention;
- formulate the problems of dealing with uncertainty when making public health policy, when epidemiological evidence does not or cannot give a clear answer;
- unpack a public health issue, evaluate relevant evidence, examine logistic and ethical issues, and formulate recommendations;
- evaluate the barriers to acting upon epidemiological evidence (vested interests, costs, practicalities) and to collecting epidemiological data (resource constraints, political issues);
- demonstrate the importance of effective communication of research findings including with the media, and also how epidemiological evidence can be misrepresented or misused;
- formulate ethical issues and appreciate their importance in the conduct of epidemiologic research and in making public health policy;
- understand the importance of a comprehensive strategy for collecting and managing epidemiological data, and apply practical skills in questionnaire design, database design (using EpiData), and preparing data for analysis (using STATA);
- demonstrate the skills required to write scientific papers;
- critically assess an epidemiological study, and systematic reviews of epidemiological evidence;
- illlustrate the role of genetic studies of disease in epidemiology.
CONSTITUENCY
This module is part of the core course for the MSc in Epidemiology and the MSc in Veterinary Epidemiology.
CONCEPTUAL OUTLINE
This module comprises twenty half day sessions plus directed self-study and self-directed learning. Ten sessions will increase awareness of the role of epidemiology through discussion of current and classic case studies of the interface between science and public health policy, and through consideration of ethical issues and the role of genetic studies of disease. The case studies are thought-provoking, even controversial, to stimulate interest and debate. They require background preparation. These sessions also provide practice in communicating ideas and knowledge, public speaking and appraising evidence.
Ten sessions deal with key skills, five of which focus on communicating and appraising research evidence and cover key skills in communicating findings in research papers and with the media, unpacking public health issues, critical appraisal and systematic reviews. The other five are data management sessions, in which students will learn the principles of questionnaire design and data management and will gain practical skills in entering and preparing data for statistical analysis using EpiData and STATA.
TEACHING STRATEGY
This module employs a problem-based learning strategy and mixed methods: lectures, seminars, group discussions and presentations, workshops, debates and practical sessions.
LEARNING TIME
The module is made up of 200 Notional Learning Hours: 60 hours contact time, 70 hours directed self-study, and 70 hours self-directed learning including review and revision.
ASSESSMENT
Each student will be expected to submit a certificate showing successful completion of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Extramural Research Web-based training course “Protecting Human Research Participants”, and to write a critique of a paper over the winter break. Formal assessment will be by written examination in June.
