ANSO 14
Epidemiology, Public Health, and Leadership in the Health Professions Winter 2019

Cross-listed PHLH 14 / CHEM 14
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

More and more, decisions in the health professions are being made on evidence from the medical literature rather than solely from the “experience” of the physician or other health practitioner. What kinds of questions (hypotheses) are being asked, and how are they answered, and answered reliably? How does a conscientious health professional keep up with this evidence and evaluate it both critically and efficiently? After a brief introduction to the history of epidemiology, the class will study a selection of “unknown” historic epidemics, and contemporary data sets in small groups, and present their conclusions in class. The remainder of roughly the middle third or so of the class will explore systematically the approaches and research designs epidemiologists use to answer, among others, questions of treatment effectiveness, preventive strategies, and to study cause and effect, e.g., is this exposure reliably related to an outcome of interest. And finally, how does one decide whether that relationship might be a causal one, and therefore actionable. The various research design applications will be illustrated by appropriate historic–some from the “canon” of the public health and clinical literature–or by more current papers. Although the first two weeks of this ambitious course is more about design issues than one of current topics in public health, about week 3–through lecture and perhaps student presentations–will apply the methodological “tool kit” to major current athletic health issues, e.g., athletic concussions and their short and long-term effects. The last week of the course the class will operate as a Journal Club, with individual and/or groups of students responsible for presenting and critiquing the design, conduct and analysis of a paper(s) concerning a current issue. These presentations may also look at athletic health issues. This WS course is designed to be a serious academic experience, with the rigor of a regular course. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Dr. Wright is a medical epidemiologist who first worked with maternal and child health and family planning programs in Alabama and Georgia. Later, after training as an EIS officer at the CDC, he was a resident consultant to both the Sri Lankan and Thai Ministries of Public Health. Still later, he was a faculty member in the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, in New Jersey.
The Class: Format: at least three times a week for a total of 6 hours
Limit: 18
Grading: pass/fail only
Requirements/Evaluation: 10-page paper, final project
Prerequisites: course in Biostat helpful, but not required
Unit Notes: all interested students will be interviewed by the instructor
Materials/Lab Fee: Cost of books
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
ANSO 14 PHLH 14 CHEM 14

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