Outcomes Research Track

The MPH Outcomes Research Specialty Track gives students the necessary tools to contribute to the body of knowledge that determines how health care practices and interventions affect end results. End results include effects that people experience and care about, such as change in the ability to function. In particular, for individuals with chronic conditions—where cure is not always possible—end results include quality of life as well as mortality. By linking the care people get to the outcomes they experience, outcomes research has become the key to developing better ways to monitor and improve the quality of care.

Time and again, studies have shown that medical practices as commonplace as hysterectomy and hernia repair were performed much more frequently in some areas than in others, even when there were no differences in the underlying rates of disease. Furthermore, there was often no information about the end results for the patients who received a particular procedure, and few comparative studies to show which interventions were most effective. These findings challenged researchers, clinicians, and health systems leaders to develop new tools to assess the impact of health care services. The Outcomes Research Specialty Track gives students the competencies necessary to develop new evidence about benefits, risks, and results of treatments so that patients, physicians, public health practitioners and policy makers can make more informed decisions.

Examples of projects undertaken in this track over the past few years include: evaluating role of persistent depression in adherence to secondary prevention behaviors after acute coronary syndromes; evaluating differences in preventive services offered by gynecologists and generalists; food allergy as a risk factor for asthma morbidity in adults; determining factors associated with adherence to influenza vaccine among inner city adults with persistent asthma; association between minor and major surgical complications after carotid endarterectomy.

• Analyze major clinical or public health problems or relevant clinical epidemiology, outcomes or health services research questions.

• Critique the state of knowledge regarding clinical epidemiology, outcomes, health services research questions, or public health policy.

• Explain the relative advantages or disadvantages of observational or experimental methods used in health services research.

• Specify the process for outcome detection and their implications for improving health outcomes in health care research.

• Understand and identify ethical issues related to OMICS research.

Outcomes Research Track Requirements and Electives

Course Number and Title	Credits
MPH0412 Epidemiology II	3
MPH0422 Big Data Epidemiology: Intro to OMICS Research	3
MPH0812 Applied Linear Models I	3
MPH0822 Applied Linear Models II	3
MPH0621 Seminar in Applied Clinical Epidemiology & Health Services Research	1
MPH0305 Introduction to Qualitative Research*	3
MPH0802 Statistical Computing with SAS*	2
MPH0623 Applied Analysis of Epidemiologic & Outcomes Research Data*	3
MPH0413 Introduction to Epidemiology Data Analysis with R*	3
MPH0624 Outcomes Research Methods*	3
MPH0801 Introduction to Probability*	3
MPH0420 Epidemiology III*	3
Students may choose other additional electives from across Tracks	variable

*Elective Options