MS in Clinical Epidemiology & Health Services Research

• Advanced Health Survey Design

  • XThis course reviews survey research methods for collecting, analyzing, and evaluating health survey data. Topics include sampling theory, questionnaire design, interviewing, and methods of survey administration. At the end of the course, students are able to design a survey, administer, and analyze it.

• Advanced Seminar in Health Services Research

  • XThe objective of this weekly course is to take students through each step of formulating and designing their own research projects. The students discuss each others' ideas, progress, and proposed research designs to gain a better understanding of the process, and use this structured opportunity to discuss their work. At each of these meetings, two of the students report on the status of their projects. The primary and secondary mentors for the students presenting at the session also participate in the discussion.

• Behavioral Science and Health Education Theory

  • XThe objective of this course is to provide an overview of theories of behavioral and social science and their roles in health services research and clinical research. The course also covers the development and evaluation of theory-based health education approaches used in medicine. As a final project, students develop a behavioral health interventions drawing on models taught in didactic sessions in order to address key patient problems. By the end of the course, students are able to identify behavioral theories most applicable to addressing a given question.

• Biostatistical Data Analysis I

  • XThe course emphasizes the use of multiple regression analysis, analysis of variance, and related techniques to analyze data in a variety of situations. Topics include least squares estimation, multiple regression, model selection techniques, detection of influential points, and goodness-of-fit criteria. Practical applications are implemented using a modern, widely available statistical package (JMP). Students gain an understanding of statistical concepts and models.

• Biostatistical Data Analysis II

  • XThis objective of this course is to convey basic concepts underlying multivariate analysis, with an emphasis on the handling of dimensional data. Considerations in dealing with survival analysis, odds ratios, and risk ratios are also covered in the course. At the end students are able to evaluate data using appropriate regression techniques, and interpret the computer program output correctly.

• Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine Conference

  • XCenter faculty, collaborating investigators, and outside visiting scientists present various research projects or reviews of the literature relevant to complementary and integrative medicine. This conference provides students with the opportunity to hear about diverse research areas in the field. The group meets on a bi-weekly basis. This conference has been approved for Continuing Medical Education accreditation.

• Changing Health Policy

  • XThis course examines the process of changing health policy. It builds on students’ existing knowledge of the health care system and policy issues. The course focuses on how public policy is developed and shaped and how policy changes are initiated and implemented through interest groups, advocacy groups, and the political environment and how they shape the actions of policy makers and policy-making bodies. By the end of the course, students are able to distinguish different sources of health policy, explain the roles of interest groups in shaping policy change, and analyze current examples.

• Cluster Randomized Trials

  • XThis course deals with the methodological and ethical issues in the conduct of cluster randomized control trials. Several examples are used to illustrate the key issues of multilevel measurement and analysis in community based prevention trials. By the end of the course, students are able to begin to plan a cluster randomized trial, and understand key biases to be avoided.

• Communicating Research Results

  • XThe objective of this course is to teach techniques for oral and written dissemination of data. Topics include abstract writing, graphic presentation of data, use of slides and overheads, oral presentation skills, and manuscript preparation and submission. At the end of the course, students are able to organize the results and to write an abstract, prepare a poster, and an oral presentation.

• Community-Based Participatory Research

  • XThis objective of this new course is to introduce students to the principles of community-based participatory research as a methodology. It teaches students the key principles, the processes used in such studies, and how they can be used the address health disparities. At the end of the course, students will know how to determine the key community partners, build community buy-in, establish a coalition of community partners, prioritize concerns, develop research initiatives, and disseminate key findings.

• David Rogers Health Policy Colloquium

  • XThe objective of this seminar is to provide broad exposure to the cultural, social, political, and economic issues shaping health policy. Weekly sessions with ample time for discussion are held with speakers from local, state, and national government; private industry and foundation executives; health policy think-tank analysts; academics; and consumer and community interest groups.

• Decision Analysis

  • XThe objective of this course is to teach the basics of probabilistic thinking and the concept of heuristics. Students learn the five-step process, specifically, the structuring of the problem, the application of probabilities, the application of values, the calculation of expected utilities, and the sensitivity analysis. By the end of the class, students are able to ask and answer questions using decision analytic models.

• Economic Evaluation in Health Care

  • XThis advanced course provides an in-depth exposure to techniques used by health economists and other health services researchers in evaluating the economic attributes of a program or intervention. Students learn how to critique cost identification, cost of illness and cost benefit, and cost-effectiveness studies and use these techniques in their own research projects. By the end of the course, students are able to structure an economic evaluation for their project.

• Foundations of Health Services Research

  • XThis course introduces students to critical issues in health care organization, financing and policy, which constitute the core of health services research topics including access and equity issues, costs of care, health care markets, health care quality and medical outcomes, health insurance and managed care effects on patient and physician behavior, and the evaluation of health care technologies and innovations. Models for understanding institutional behavior, as well as behavior within organizations are reviewed. By the end of the course, students are able to use the concepts to develop approaches to solving health care problems.

• Fundamentals of Clinical Epidemiology and Research Methodology

  • XThe objective of this course is to teach basic architecture of clinical and health services research with an emphasis on three critical components: the population, interventions, and outcomes. Students also learn about different study designs, specific challenges in both observational and interventional studies, and methods of addressing potential biases. Basic principles of measurement for categorical and continuous data, including the sources of variance for such data are emphasized. Students learn how to evaluate validity and reliability of data and critical appraisal of the published literature to illustrate threats to validity. By the end of the course, students are able to read the literature critically and develop detailed proposals for their own projects.

• Grant Writing

  • XThis course is designed to introduce students to grant writing and peer review. In the first two weeks, sessions cover study design, writing abstracts, specific aims, background, preliminary studies, and methods. Other sessions include budget and justification development, how to select funding agencies and types of applications. Students write an R01 grant application and then serve as "study section" to provide primary and secondary reviews for each proposal. By the end of the course, students can write a grant.

• Health Care in the U.S: Policy and Politics

  • XThis course focuses on policy issues that affect all health care practitioners. How is the health care system organized? Who pays the health care bill? Why have efforts to enact national health insurance failed? What role does government now play in the U.S. health care system and how do the different levels of government share these tasks? How can government encourage good quality care? By the end of the course, students have an understanding of how the current health care system has evolved, and major forces in its evolution.

• Health Disparities: Challenges and Opportunities

  • XThis conference, organized by Dr. Boutin-Foster and Dr. Carlyle Miller, the Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Equal Opportunity Programs, will draw a distinguished group of visiting professors to share their research and policy initiatives.

• Health Services Research Journal Club

  • XThis weekly journal club focuses on improving quality of care, improving safety and reducing medical errors, and is led by students. Each week the students lead a discussion on recent literature on methods to improve safety and quality, including approaches to patient centered care. The sessions will provide the chance to review and debate results in the recent literature.

• Improving Quality and Safety

  • XThe objective of this new course is to focus on the special methodological challenges in quality and effectiveness research. Systems approaches will be emphasized. Students will learn about developing quality metrics, collaborative improvement strategies, and major new innovations in the field. Special strategies for the collection and ongoing tracking of data relevant to safety and quality will be reviewed. Students will be introduced to approaches to reduce medical errors. By the end of the course, students will be able to add value to the New York Presbyterian Hospital quality improvement teams.

• Information Skills

  • XThis course provides techniques for finding relevant information from a variety of online resources through group activities and customized tutorials. It is taught in two sessions in the summer and eight sessions in the fall. By the end of the class, students can find and track health-related information from the Internet, know how to broaden or narrow searches, how to critically evaluate and quality filter the results, and manage their references.

• Introduction to Biostatistics

  • XThis course provides an introduction to methods and concepts of biostatistical analysis. Topics include: statistical computing, descriptive statistics in tables and graphics, probability and distributions, sampling distributions, hypothesis testing and statistical comparison, types of error, significance and confidence levels, sample size, and nonparametric methods. By the end of the course, students have an understanding of basic statistical concepts and models.

• Introduction to Hierarchical Models

  • XThis course describes the use of hierarchical models as a means to handle correlated data, and discusses the building of hierarchical models. Specific topics include linear mixed models, generalized linear models, generalized estimating equations, and the incorporation of nested structure and/or repeated measures. By the end of the course, the students are able to make use of these models to handle correlated and repeated measures of data of continuous, count or binary data types.

• Measuring Psychosocial and Clinical Constructs

  • XThis course, which has focused primarily on depression, will be expanded to provide an overview of the methods used in measuring psychosocial and clinical variables, such as depression, stress, social support, anxiety, comorbidity, and disease severity. It will also review widely used measures of function and quality of life. Students will learn how to collect high quality data using standardized procedures. In addition, they will learn the basic rules required for creating new measures for variables that are not adequately captured with existing measures. At the conclusion of the course, students will be able to identify the most appropriate measures for their projects.

• Multicultural Approaches to Community Health and Disease Prevention

  • XThis course provides an overview of cultural diversity and its impact on the development and implementation of health promotion policies, programs, and health services research. Students learn how to recognize human differences, identify their own biases, and foster the development of awareness, sensitivity, knowledge, and skills required to implement effective health promotion and disease prevention care for culturally diverse populations. By the end of the course, students are able to understand how cultural differences may impact on their research.

• Practical Applications and Computer Lab

  • XThe objective of this course is to provide an approach to computer technologies, which facilitate the design, implementation, and analysis of quantitative data. It includes methods of primary data collection, data coding and error checking, as well as an introduction to data analysis using statistical programs. Students learn to create computer-based data collection tools. The course is taught in a computer laboratory. At the end of the course, students are able to develop a primary data collection instrument, set up a database, and perform simple descriptive analysis of their data.

• Public Datasets for Health Services Research

  • XThis course focuses on conveying information on micro-level data sets useful for research in health related fields—including Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, National Health Interview Survey, Health and Retirement Survey, and National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. After an introduction to the different data sets, students learn to select one data set for hands-on analysis using the actual database. By the end of the class, students are able to select specific data sets to address specific questions. With the expansion of the course, students will be able to begin analyzing the data.

• Qualitative Research Methods

  • XThe objective of this course is to enable students to gain a basic fluency with qualitative research methods, and understand the importance of formative methods with data from key informant surveys, focus groups, or face-to-face interviews. Students learn how to ask open-ended questions and how concepts, categories, and themes are developed using grounded theory. They learn how to analyze qualitative data. By the end of the course, students are able to conduct qualitative interviews using a script and are able to use open coding to identify concepts, categories, and themes.

• Research Ethics

  • XThe purpose of this seminar is to review and critically evaluate the philosophical underpinnings of current guidelines and regulations for the responsible conduct of research. It considers different aspects of doing research where moral decision-making is necessary. Investigators’ responsibilities as members of the scientific community and gatekeepers of public trust in science are discussed. Topics include ethical questions related to the research process, professional integrity, authorship, and respect for human subjects. Case studies are used. By the end of the course, students should be able to rigorously follow principles of responsible conduct of research.

• Research Methodology Conference

  • XThe objective of this conference is to focus on challenges in research methodology and to address issues that have arisen in the design and conduct of studies. The conference operates as a "think tank" on issues, and includes a full meeting of an interdisciplinary group consisting of clinical epidemiologists, biostatisticians, behavioral scientists, health services researchers, medical informatics experts, and cooperating investigators. The group meets on a bi-weekly basis. This conference has been approved for Continuing Medical Education accreditation.

• Responsible Conduct of Research

  • XThe objectives of this course are to heighten students' awareness of ethical considerations relevant to the conduct of research; inform students of federal, state, and institutional policies, regulations, and procedures; and provide students with critical analysis and problem solving skills for ethical decision-making.

• Structural Equation Modeling

  • XThis course is an introduction and overview of structural equation modeling, including such diverse techniques as path analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, cause modeling with latent variables and analysis of variance and multiple linear regression. In particular, the course will examine the five steps that characterize most applications: specification, identification, estimates, assessment of l fit, and respecification. By the end of the course, students are be able to fit structural equation models.

• Teaching How to Teach

  • XThis course is based on the curriculum designed by Dr. Kelly Skeff at Stanford University and is designed to impart practical skills useful to teachers. At the end of the course, students learn effective communication skills that can be employed in teaching as well as patient care.

• Thesis Preparation

  • XThe objective of this one-day course is to describe the elements and process of organizing, writing and presenting a graduate thesis.

• Weill Cornell Ethics Course

  • XThis course is required for all M.S. students at Weill Cornell, and is Internet based. The objective of this course is to convey the critical issues in the ethical conduct of research. It focuses on informed consent, preserving confidentiality, data management, misconduct, human subjects, and animal subjects. Students are introduced to basic issues in credit and responsibility in science including criteria for authorship, conflict of interest, accountability of authors and reviewers, and data integrity.

MS in Clinical Investigation

• Advanced Seminars in Ethics of Clinical Research

  • XRecent public debates about conflicts of interests, exploitation of human subjects, and scientific fraud have brought to the forefront the importance of ethical reflection in the context of biomedical investigations. This course examines various ethical aspects that arise when conducting biomedical research. In order to evaluate such ethical concerns this course will review and critically analyze the philosophical underpinnings of current guidelines and regulations for the responsible conduct of research. Different aspects of doing research where moral decision-making is necessary will be considered as well as discussion of investigators’ responsibilities as members of the scientific community and gatekeepers of public trust in science.

• Bioinformatics Workshop

  • XThis focus of this workshop is on web-based bioinformatics tools. At the end of the course, trainees will be expected to have a solid foundation in using fundamental tools of bioinformatics and how they apply to clinical and translational investigation.

• Clinical Trials Design and Analysis

  • XThis course will provide an overview of how to design, conduct, and analyze clinical trials. Completion of this course will lead to an understanding of the theoretical and practical aspects of clinical trials related to the strengths and limitations of randomized clinical trials; theoretical and practical aspects of randomization, stratification, and blinding; challenges of designing and implementing single-center and multi-center clinical trials; major issues in the analysis of clinical trials; role of clinical trials in the drug development process; and investigators’ roles and responsibilities in conducting clinical trials.

• Community-Based Scientific Research in Health & Aging

  • XThis course is designed to introduce interdisciplinary researchers to the principles and practices of community-based scientific research in health research, gerontology, and geriatrics. The course consists of a series of expert presentations from researchers and practitioners involved in community-based research projects intended to benefit the elderly in New York City. Individual seminar topics will range from theoretical presentations of different models of community-based and other types of translational research models (e.g., CBPR, action research, and related methods that engage community participation), methodological education, ethical issues in community-based research, specific community research projects, and funding and publication issues. A primary emphasis is on exposure to interdisciplinary activities, diverse perspectives, and values provided by researcher and community-practice presenters.

• Data Management for Clinical Research

  • XThis course is designed to familiarize individuals with computer technologies and procedures essential in current clinical research, and will cover practical topics such as creating research databases, safeguarding patient confidentiality, regulatory issues, data and file system security, data transfer over networks, and backup systems. In addition, it will cover basic concepts in medical informatics essential for data sharing including principles of database design, medical vocabularies, data standards, data warehousing, and Internet technologies.

• Economic Evaluations in Health Care

  • XThis advanced course will provide an in-depth exposure to techniques used by health economists and other health services researchers to conduct economic evaluations of health care technologies and programs. Participants will learn how to critique economic evaluations using cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit approaches, and will be introduced to tools they can use to apply these techniques to their own research projects.

• Foundations of Clinical Research

  • XThe goal of this course is to provide an overview of the methodological foundations for research involving human subjects, while gaining an understanding of core epidemiological concepts, theory and applications of commonly used biostatistical methods, and investigative methods of clinical interventions.

• Foundations of Epidemiology

  • XThis course is designed to train students to conduct epidemiologic research of the highest quality. Through a combination of video-conferencing and live lectures and in-class questions/answers discussion sessions, students will learn how to evaluate research conducted by others and how to apply epidemiologic principles to health-related specialties including clinical medicine and health services. The course will provide students with an introduction to basic and intermediate epidemiologic methods to build the foundation for further work in epidemiology either as practicing epidemiologists or as sophisticated users of epidemiologic information.

• Fundamentals of Neuroimaging

  • XThis course is offered to students desiring a background in functional neuroimaging. The goal of the course is to have students achieve a functional command of specific to cognitive neuropsychiatric imaging (MRI, fMRI and EEG), and a working knowledge of other imaging modalities. The course will consist of a comprehensive set of topics, in a series of 1 to 2 hours lecture/discussion sessions, with laboratory demonstrations as appropriate.

• Grant Writing and Scientific Journalism: Inspiration, Writing, and Education

  • XThis course will focus on strengthening scientific writing skills. Students will develop and write a formal research proposal in an area of personal interest; write an article for a scientific journal; critically evaluate the merits of specific approaches to scientific problems and compose formal critiques; and develop an article that effectively presents scientific work to the general public.

• Immunology I & II

  • XThis two-part series will provide a fundamental understanding of immunology-focused research. This course will give a comprehensive overview of basic immunology beginning with innate immune responses, followed by a study of the main aspects of acquired immunity. Important topics will include: specific interactions of target cells and T cells that are regulated by the MHC molecule and peptide antigens on the target cell and the antigen specific T cell receptor; generation and molecular structure of B and T cell antigen receptors; signaling through immune receptors; the development of antigen specific T and B cells; and specific roles of some cytokines/lymphokines.

• Introduction to Biostatistics in Clinical Research

  • XThis course is an introduction to the fundamental statistical issues in designing clinical research studies. Its primary emphasis is on understanding the design and analytic methods of clinical research from a statistical perspective. Lectures and discussions will focus on the following: exploratory data analysis; basic concepts of statistical analysis; construction of hypothesis tests and confidence intervals; the development of statistical methods for analyzing data; development of mathematical models used to relate a response variable to explanatory or descriptive variables; and an introduction to statistical analysis of microarray and genomic studies.

• Logic and Experimental Design

  • XThis course will focus on experimental strategies used by biomedical scientists to understand both normal and pathophysiological processes. Lecture topics will cover biochemical, cellular, molecular, immunological, genetic, and bioinformatics approaches. The goal of the course is to equip students with fundamental knowledge needed to develop independent patient and translational research proposals, and to critically evaluate the work of others.

• Microarray Workshop

  • XThis course is designed to give students an overview of microarray technologies and their applications in the biomedical field, leading to design and analysis of microarray experiments. The course will cover the latest techniques and theories and is organized around a combination of lecture and practical sessions.

• Molecular Biology and Genetics in Clinical Research

  • XThe aim of this course, composed of both lectures and workshops, is to introduce the following: basic concepts and principles of molecular biology and molecular genetics; basic technology of molecular biology in translational research; and contemporary concepts and technology of molecular genetics and molecular biology as related to clinical research and clinical medicine. Topics will include the human genome, gene structure, gene expression, gene mutations, gene interference, gene cloning, gene therapy, and animal models of human diseases. Both basic and contemporary technologies will be covered, including DNA, RNA and protein isolation, DNA amplification, mutation detection, mRNA and protein determination, microarray, proteomics, and database searching.

• Neuroscience 444- Drug Development: A Business Approach (Club Bio-Med)

  • XThis course will educate students about the processes involved in drug and medical device development and commercialization. Upon completion of the course, students will be better equipped to compete and collaborate with big pharmaceutical companies. The course will include presentations on drug development, the FDA, patent law, clinical trials, pricing policy, drug sales, financial analysis, and related topics. It will also include presentations on specific biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies including an analysis of present and future performance. Students will be expected to actively participate in 15 meetings over a two-year period (there are 10 meetings each year), follow a single company for a year, and formally present a company and evaluate its prospects.

• Nutrition and Aging

  • XThis course will provide an analysis of research, programs, and services related to the interaction between nutrition and aging with emphasis on the role of nutrition in comprehensive geriatric care. Course objectives include understanding fundamental demographic, psychosocial, physiologic,and behavior issues in geriatric nutrition; and describing current policies and programs and different health care settings relevant to older adult nutrition.

• Physical Principles of Biomedical Imaging

  • XThis survey course will cover basic physical, biochemical, computational, and engineering principles underlying current medical imaging techniques, including magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, radionuclide production and radiochemistry, optical imaging, X-ray computed tomography, and ultrasound. The goal of the course will be to provide students with a broad knowledge of the concepts and implementation strategies of various imaging methods relevant in current research and clinical practice. Practical applications will be used to illustrate the main themes of the course. Tours of the Biomedical Imaging Core Facility and other imaging laboratories will augment the formal course material. At the end of the course students will be able to identify appropriate imaging strategies for clinical research and have a working knowledge of the major techniques available to the investigator.

• Principles of Clinical Pharmacology

  • XThis course is designed to present basic principles for understanding the rationale behind development of drug therapy with consideration of the factors involved in individual variability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacogenomics. Topics will include: dose-response, drug efficacy and potency, drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion, drug addiction, drug use in pregnancy, chemotherapy, and the principles behind drug-to-drug interactions.

• Responsible Conduct of Research

  • XThe objectives of this course are to heighten students' awareness of ethical considerations relevant to the conduct of research; inform students of federal, state, and institutional policies, regulations, and procedures; and provide students with critical analysis and problem solving skills for ethical decision-making.

• Statistical Methods for Observational Studies

  • XThis course will introduce students involved in clinical research to the distinction between randomized clinical trials and observational studies. It will discuss the statistical background for causal inference and teach statistical methods such as propensity score analysis and instrumental variable analysis for drawing the best possible inference from observational studies. Published literature utilizing large secondary databases such as NHANES and SEER-Medicare will be discussed to motivate future studies that can be planned. Steps for systematic literature review and various methodologies for meta-analysis will be taught. At the end of the course, students will be able to rigorously design and write data analysis plans for observational studies. They will also be able to analyze data (using STATA) for summarizing epidemiological studies, for using multiple regression analyses (linear, logistic, and survival), to adjust for confounders, and for performing propensity score analysis and meta-analysis.

• Survey Research & Questionnaire Design

  • XThis course will provide an overview of survey research methods for health-related research with patients, providers, community members, or other population groups. Students learn the conceptual and practical aspects of collecting self-report data from research participants (e.g., behaviors, intentions, knowledge, attitudes, etc.). Topics will include measurement terminology, psychometric properties (reliability and validity), advantages and disadvantages of different assessment strategies and data collection modalities, matching research questions to variables and measurement strategies, and ways to efficiently recruit and retain participants in survey research. Practical aspects of survey design are covered including questionnaire format and layout, characteristics of good survey items, pilot testing, item reduction, and ways to minimize survey and item non-response and other potential sources of bias. Students will gain an understanding of survey research by designing research projects in their areas of interest that involve collecting self-report data.

• Understanding Team Dynamics (e-Cornell)

  • XIn this two-week, online course developed by e-Cornell, participants will explore the dimensions and inherent benefits of a well-organized, synchronized team and how to develop a systematic and concrete approach to organizing individuals into a highly effective, productive and cohesive workforce.