Epidemiology for the Clinical Investigator (DCS 5307)

The course covers these topics: concepts of multivariate causality; criteria for establishing causality; risk; rates; incidence, prevalence and attack rates; incidence density; crude, specific, and adjusted rates; relative risk, odds ratio, case-fatality rate and attributable risk; sampling error, selection bias, information bias, definition bias, and confounding; statistical techniques to control for bias; variables; overview of statistical analysis; multiple comparisons correction; study designs to avoid bias: survey and sample selection, cross-sectional, cohort, and case-control; prospective vs. retrospective; attributes of cohort studies; design principles of case-control studies; types of control groups; strategies of matching in case-control studies; experiential introduction to statistical computing for different types of clinical epidemiology studies.

Course objectives are:

  1. Apply the major principles of epidemiology to designing, executing, and publishing clinical research projects
  2. Experience the application of epidemiologic principles in the analysis of actual clinical research data with SAS

Prerequisites: DCS 5110: Statistical Analysis System (SAS) Training, and DCS 5101: Biostatistics Lab I, or equivalent

Credit: 3 hours; required for all program students

Grading Criteria: Pass/Fail

Course Director:
Robert W. Haley, MD
Professor and Director
Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Epidemiology (E5.732)
Phone: 214-648-3075

Course Administrator:
Mack Dressler
Assistant Administrator for Education and Degree Programs
Department of Clinical Sciences (E5.506)
Phone: 214-648-6489
Fax: 214-648-3934