Public health focuses on preventing disease and improving population health, unlike clinical medicine’s focus on individual treatment. Epidemiology, the foundation of public health, helps identify health issues, their causes, and patterns. It supports key functions like surveillance, research, field investigations, and program evaluation to guide effective interventions.
This 30 hour course provides a foundational understanding of the key principles and methods used to study health and disease in populations. Designed for healthcare professionals and students new to the field, the course explores how epidemiological research informs public health decisions and clinical practice. It is structured into two modules: Basic Epidemiology and Public Health Surveillance and Introduction to Clinical Epidemiology. The first module focuses on how descriptive studies offer insights into population health, the causes of measurement error in epidemiology, and the strengths and weaknesses of cross-sectional and prevalence studies. The second module delves into prospective studies, exploring their role in estimating disease incidence and prevalence, and offers a critical evaluation of randomized controlled trials in comparison to alternative methods for assessing interventions.
Each module concludes with a short quiz to reinforce key concepts, and the course culminates in a written assignment designed to assess participants’ ability to apply the concepts covered. By the end of the course, participants will have developed the skills to interpret epidemiological data and critically evaluate different study designs, laying the groundwork for further study in public health and research methodology.