The objective of this FAES Graduate School is to provide a deeper understanding of epidemiologic research methodology that can be used to interpret critically the results of epidemiologic research. This understanding is the result of investigating conceptual models for study designs, disease frequency, measures of association and impact, imprecision, bias, and effect modification. The course emphasizes the interpretation of research, even when the design or execution of the respective research is less than ideal.
In this introductory FAES Graduate School class, students learn the foundations of health economics and econometric modeling and apply them to the evaluation of biomedical research and public health programs.
This lecture series was formed to enhance opportunities for dialogue about how innovations in genomics research and technology can impact health disparities. Topics range from basic science to translational research.
In his Methods: Mind the Gap webinar, Dr. David Grossman focuses on the evidence gaps in children’s clinical preventive services and addresses how these gaps might be filled through a combination of different study designs that best address these gaps, including screening trials, treatment trials, and observational evidence across a broad variety of conditions.
Each year, the federal government collects, manages, and makes available considerable amounts of population health data. In this course, students gain working knowledge of databases, such as NHANES, NHIS, and MEPS, that are frequently used by public health analysts, policy makers, and researchers. The course will cover the types of variables that are included in each database. It will also discuss how the data are collected, how to retrieve the data, and how to prepare the data for statistical analysis. Using SAS or STATA, students learn how to develop appropriate research questions and analyze the data, with emphasis on data management, exploratory data analysis, regression analysis, and the interpretation of statistical analysis. Finally, students will study a series of published papers on health policy in order to understand the application of statistical methods to the field.
This webinar explores the topic of community and stakeholder engagement, partnership, and issues of measurement. Drs. Nina Wallerstein and Bonnie Duran provide an overview of their research in community-based participatory research (CBPR), in relevance to implementation science, and the measures they used to assess engagement and CBPR in action.
In his webinar, Dr. Powell describes the development and refinement of a compilation of implementation strategies, emphasizes the importance of carefully specifying and reporting implementation strategies to ensure replicability, and discusses ongoing work focusing on the development of more effective ways of tailoring implementation strategies to specific contexts.
Dr. Kerr is a leader in physical activity research and assessment in older adults. Her webinar outlines the importance of improving measurement precision of both physical activity and sitting time using mobile sensors and machine learning techniques. Dr. Kerr discusses the infrastructure investments that have been necessary, challenges of working with computer scientists, and the need for stronger validation of new measurement techniques.
In his Methods: Mind the Gap presentation, Dr. Robert Califf discusses the role and value of clinical trials in medical research given the rapid evolution of the science of clinical trials.
The objective of this FAES Graduate School course is to provide an introduction to the principles and methods of epidemiology, defined as the study of the distribution and determinants of disease in populations. Lectures, problem sets, and outside reading will cover ecologic, case-control, cohort, and experimental studies. Topics to be discussed will include study design, measures of disease risk, sources of bias, methods of controlling for extraneous factors, principles of screening, and interpretation of data. Illustrations will include classic and contemporary examples in acute and chronic disease.
This is the first part of a two-part course. Registration is required separately for each part of the course.
This course trains registrants on how to effectively and safely conduct clinical research. It focuses on the spectrum of clinical research and the research process by highlighting biostatistical and epidemiologic methods, study design, protocol preparation, patient monitoring, quality assurance, ethical and legal issues, and much more. This course will be of interest to physicians, scientists, medical and dental students, nurses, public health professionals, and others conducting or planning a career in clinical research.
Many instruments in HealthMeasures are based on item response theory (IRT). IRT is a family of mathematical models that assumes that responses on a set of items or questions are related to an unmeasured “trait”. An example of such a trait may be physical function. IRT models assume a person’s level on physical function (e.g., high vs. low) will predict that person’s probability of endorsing each specific item.
In his Methods: Mind the Gap presentation, Dr. Ransohoff illustrates challenges and practical realities in guidelines-making by describing the evolution of evidence and of guidelines for colon cancer screening. The lecture describes the relationship between evidence, policy, and politics and identifies current challenges in making high-quality guidelines.
These 12 webinars are intended for nutritionists, epidemiologists, statisticians, graduate students, and others with an interest in measurement error in dietary intake data. The goal of the webinar series is to provide participants with an understanding of:
- The sources and magnitudes of dietary measurement errors
- How measurement error may affect estimates of usual dietary intake distributions
- How measurement error may affect analyses of diet–health relationships
- How the effects of measurement error may be mitigated.
This 6-part webinar series provides an overview of physical activity as a multidimensional health behavior; an in-depth review of methods to measure active and sedentary behaviors by self-report; and an exploration of important issues when assessing physical activity in diverse populations.
These modules are designed to complement the Measures Registry and Measures Registry User Guides and assist researchers and practitioners with choosing the best measures across the four domains of the Measures Registry: individual diet, food environment, individual physical activity and physical activity environment.
This week-long immersion program provides 30 selected investigators with a thorough introduction to selected mHealth methodologies that may be used to study behavioral and social dimensions of public health. Participants work with expert mentors to create their own inter-disciplinary mobile health projects.
The mHealth training institute is funded via the NIH BD2K Program. The NIH BD2K Program is funded by all the NIH Institutes and Centers and receives support from the NIH Common Fund and the NIH Office of Behavioral Health and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR).
Mixing qualitative and quantitative research methods can provide deeper exploration of causal mechanisms, interpretation of variables, and contextual factors that may mediate or moderate the topic of study. In this Methods: Mind the Gap webinar, Dr. Leonard Jason provides an introduction to the different approaches used in conducting mixed-methods research, including the benefits and challenges.
In this webinar, Dr. Larry Palinkas introduces the use of mixed method designs in research on three interrelated facets of evidence-based practices implementation: provider social networks, use of research evidence, and cultural exchange between researchers and practitioners. Dr. Palinkas explains the multiple strategies through which qualitative and quantitative research methods can converge, specifically highlighting their use within three funded research studies of implementation.
Measuring and projecting the economic burden associated with cancer and identifying effective policies for minimizing its impact are increasingly important issues for health care policymakers and health care systems at multiple levels.
Written by experts in health economics, epidemiology, health services research, health policy, and biostatistics, this publication highlights the multiple benefits of comparing patterns of cancer care, costs, and outcomes across health systems within a single country or across countries.