Master of Science Degree in
Epidemiology and Clinical Research

In addition to completing the core courses required for an MS degree in Epidemiology and Clinical Research, students focusing on Global Health Concentration designation must complete the following requirements:

Required course:

EPI 237: Practical Approaches to Global Health Research (IPS 290, MED 226)
How do you come up with an idea for health research overseas? How do you develop a research question, concept note, and get your project funded? How do you manage personnel in the field, difficult cultural situations, or unexpected problems? How do you create a sampling strategy, select a study design, and ensure ethical conduct with human subjects? This course takes students through the process of health research in under-resourced countries from the development of the initial research question and literature review to securing support and detailed planning for field work. Students progressively develop and receive weekly feedback on a concept note to support a funding proposal addressing a research question of their choosing. Aims at graduate students; undergraduates in their junior or senior year may enroll with instructor consent. This course is restricted to undergraduates unless they have completed 85 units or more.

Selectives (Take at least 6 credits from this list):

• EPI 231: Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases
  • (Formerly HRP 231) Principles of the transmission of the infectious agents (viruses, bacteria, rickettsiae, mycoplasma, fungi, and protozoan and helminth parasites). The role of vectors, reservoirs, and environmental factors. Pathogen and host characteristics that determine the spectrum of infection and disease. Endemicity, outbreaks, and epidemics of selected infectious diseases. Principles of control and surveillance.
• EARTHSYS 214: Global Change and Emerging Infectious Disease (EARTHSYS 114, ESS 213, HUMBIO 114)
  • The changing epidemiological environment. How human-induced environmental changes, such as global warming, deforestation and land-use conversion, urbanization, international commerce, and human migration, are altering the ecology of infectious disease transmission, and promoting their re-emergence as a global public health threat. Case studies of malaria, cholera, hantavirus, plague, and HIV.
• HRP 204: Models for Understanding and Controlling Global Infectious Diseases (HUMBIO 154D)
  • This course introduces students to the dynamics of infectious diseases of global health importance, focusing on the use of mathematical models to characterize their transmission in populations. Relevant case examples of pathogens with differing natural history and transmission routes include tuberculosis, HIV, malaria, typhoid, and cholera, as well emerging infectious diseases such as Ebola and the 2019 novel coronavirus. Lectures will emphasize the theoretical basis underlying infectious disease dynamics and link them to in-class workshops and problem sets that will emphasize public health applications and will provide students with hands-on experience in creating and coding models. Students will learn the mathematical underpinnings of key topics in infectious disease transmission including herd immunity, the basic reproductive number, vaccine effects, social contact structure, host heterogeneities, and pathogen fitness. The course will teach students how to approach new questions in infectious disease transmission, from model selection, tradeoffs in model complexity or parsimony, parameterization, sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. Students will practice building models, evaluating the influence of model parameters, making predictions about disease trajectories, and projecting the impact of public health interventions.
• HRP 252: Outcomes Analysis (BIOMEDIN 251, MED 252)
  • Methods of conducting empirical studies which use large existing medical, survey, and other databases to ask both clinical and policy questions. Econometric and statistical models used to conduct medical outcomes research. How research is conducted on medical and health economics questions when a randomized trial is impossible. Problem sets emphasize hands-on data analysis and application of methods, including re-analyses of well-known studies. Prerequisites: one or more courses in probability, and statistics or biostatistics.
• SOMGEN 207: Theories of Change in Global Health
  
• • Open to graduate students studying in any discipline whose research work or interest engages global health. The course undertakes a critical assessment of how different academic disciplines frame global health problems and recommend pathways toward improvements. Focuses on evaluating examples of both success and failure of different theories of change in specific global health implementations. Pre-requisites: Econ118, CEE265D, HumBio 129S, or HumBio 124C.