Required Courses

Introduction to Research Methodology and Statistical Analysis

The basic architecture of clinical and health services research will be presented. Emphasis will be placed on the three critical components: the population; the interventions, and the outcomes. Basic principles of measurement for categorical and continuous data, including the sources of variance and hypothesis-testing for such data, will be emphasized. Participants will also learn about Type I and Type II error.
Faculty: Mary E. Charlson, M.D.
3 credits

Practical Applications and Computer Lab

An approach to computer technologies to facilitate the design, implementation, and data analysis of research projects will be covered. Methods of data collection, including data coding and error checking will also be addressed. The course is taught in a computer laboratory and is designed to outline a rational approach, with emphasis on both the pitfalls and potential of utilizing the computer. The course will also involve primary data collection in the areas of chart review, medical claims data, health survey questionnaire data, and clinical trial data.
Faculty: James Hollenberg, M.D. and Carol Mancuso, M.D.
2 credits

Introduction to Health Services Research

This course introduces students to critical issues in health organization, financing and policy which constitute the core of health services research topics. Students are prompted to consider the importance of the interrelationships between these issues and to apply critical thinking to the research. A variety of research methods and perspectives are presented to give students a flavor of the richness of this field. Specific topics include research areas of access and equity issues, evaluating 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. The course emphasizes the applied usefulness of research for policy making and organizational planning.
Faculty: John Kuder, Ph.D.
2 credits

Behavioral Science and Health Education

This course will examine the applications of behavioral science and health education in a wide range of clinical medical problems and health promotion and disease prevention programs. Several theoretical models from the behavioral and social sciences will be reviewed. The course will also familiarize students with the concepts and basic steps used to develop and evaluate theory-based health education interventions.
Faculty: John P. Allegrante, Ph.D.
2 credits

Qualitative Research Methods

Students will gain a basic fluency with qualitative research methods, a research tool for gathering and interpreting descriptive data from surveys, focus groups, and face-to-face interviews. The sessions will interweave the theoretical underpinnings of the methods with examples of qualitative research applications. The nexus between qualitative research and techniques of anthropological, sociological, and historical research will be explored. The use of qualitative methods in action or practice situations, and their application as a prelude to quantitative methods, is stressed.
Faculty: Laura Robbins, D.S.W.
1-3 credits

Introduction to Biostatistics

This course will provide basic principles of measurement for categorical and continuous data, including the sources of variance and hypothesis-testing for such data will be emphasized.
Faculty: William Briggs, Ph.D.
3 credits

Decision Analysis

The basics of probabilistic thinking and the concept of heuristics will be reviewed. Students will 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.
Faculty: James Hollenberg, M.D.
2 credits

Principles and Practices of Communicating Research Results

The objective of this course is to teach techniques for oral and written presentation of data. Students learn how to organize the results in order to optimally convey the significance of the findings. Topics include abstract writing, graphic presentation of data, use of slides and overheads, oral presentation skills, and manuscript preparation and submission.
Faculty: Carla Boutin-Foster, M.D. and Members of the Medical Art and Photography Department
1 credit

Depression: Assessment, Measurement and Outcomes

This course gives an overview of the methods used in measuring depression as well as other psychosocial variables, such as social support and anxiety. In addition, students also learn the basic tools required for data acquisition and data analysis.
Faculty: George Alexopoulos, M.D., Martha Bruce, Ph.D., M.P.H. and Barnett Meyers, M.D.
1 credit

Advanced Biostatistics

Session topics: Psychological factors and decision making; Diagnostic Test Characteristics; Selection of Diagnostic Tests; Structuring Clinical Problems; Utility Theory; Markov Processes; Microcomputer Programs in Decision AnalLearn modern statistical methods including Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo computation, hierarchical models, cluster analysis, graphical display and other advanced topics suited to the large biological datasets such as micro arrays. All work will be done using R and BUGS open-source and freely available software packages.
Faculty: William Briggs, Ph.D.
3 credits

Clinical Economics: Cost Effectiveness

Learn about the techniques used by health economists and other health services researchers in evaluating the economic attributes of a program or intervention. Participants will learn how to critique cost of illness, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness studies, and use these techniques in their own research projects.
Faculty: Donald S. Kenkel, Ph.D.
1 credit

Intermediate Statistics

A hands-on course exploring regression, categorical data analysis, and logistic regression. Practical model building and measures of model goodness will be emphasized. An introduction to statistical software will be given; the R statistical software (freely available) will be supported, though the students are free to use any software. There are no prerequisites, though the student should know the basic goals of statistics and data analysis to fully appreciate the course. The level of math in the course is limited as the main goal is the understanding of basic statistical models.
Faculty: William Briggs, Ph.D.
3 credits

Advanced Seminar in Health Services Research

Attended by students and their primary faculty supervisors, students learn how to formulate and design their own research project, while critiquing and helping their colleagues. This provides the opportunity for students to learn from each others experiences. Students will use the structured opportunity of the colloquium to discuss their work and support each other in the development of their theses.
Faculty: Mary Charlson, M.D. and Carol Mancuso, M.D.
1-6 credits.

Ethics of Clinical and Health Services Research

The objective of this course is to convey the critical issues in the ethical conduct of research. It will focus on key issues in clinical and health services research including conflict of interest, preserving confidentiality, and assuring data integrity. The course will review historical events which led to the enactment of legislation and the development of health policies governing the conduct of research. Office of Misconduct Case-studies will be reviewed, including the renowned Tuskegee Syphilis study. Students will learn how to handle research data. Participants will also learn how to develop study protocols which comply with Institutional Review Board standards.
Faculty: Tri-Institutional Faculty
1 credit

Teaching How to Teach

The objective of this course is to convey practical skills critical to effective teaching. This course is based on the curriculum designed by Dr. Kelly Skeff and his colleagues at Stanford University and is designed to impart practical skills immediately useful to teachers. Fellows learn effective communication skills that can be employed in research, teaching and patient care.
Faculty: Carol Storey-Johnson, M.D.
2 credits

Multicultural Approaches to Community Health and Disease Prevention

Students will be introduced to basic issues in the conduct of research and the publication of scientific findings. Topics will include criteria for authorship, accountability of authors, peer review, responsibility of reviewers, and intellectual property. Lectures presenting definitions, guidelines, and policies in each of these topics will be accompanied by discussion of cases that present challenging situations. Students must participate in case discussion. The learning objective of case discussion is to enhance students abilities to construct an effective and well-reasoned response to a challenging issue in research.
Faculty: Laura Robbins, D.S.W.
2 credits

Advanced Health Survey Design

Social survey methodology and its application to community and population-based health issues will be discussed. The course will cover many subjects relevant to survey research methodology including: questionnaire design and development, item construction and issues in scaling; denominator-based sampling strategies, power, and response rate; data collection strategies, including telephone and mail surveys; and organizing, analyzing and interpreting correlational survey data. By the end of the course, participants will be able to design and conduct a population-based survey.
Faculty: John Allegrante, Ph.D.
2 credits

Healthcare in the U.S.: Politics and Policy

This 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 are the key issues on the nations long-term care policy agenda? What role does government now play in the US health care system and how do the different levels of government share these tasks? How can government encourage good quality care? What are the key health care issues on the federal and state levels? Faculty: Michael Sparer, Ph.D.
2 credits

Credit and Responsibility in Science

Students are introduced to basic issues in the conduct of research and the publication of scientific findings. Topics include criteria for authorship, accountability of authors, peer review, responsibility of reviewers, data integrity, and intellectual property. Lectures presenting definitions, guidelines, and policies in each of these topics are accompanied by discussion of cases that present challenging situations.
Faculty: Elizabeth Myers, Ph.D.
1 credit

Elective Courses

Public Datasets for Health Services and Outcomes Research

This course will feature information on micro-level data sets useful for research in health or related fields. The surveys to be covered are: Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), Health and Retirement Survey (HRS), and other datasets. After introduction to the different public use data sets, one data set will be selected for hands on application of multivariate modeling using the actual database. Faculty: Kosali Simon, Ph.D.
1 credit

Cluster Randomized Trials

This 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 multi-level measurement and analysis in community based prevention trials. This course is particularly useful to those intending to conduct prevention or health services research.
Faculty: Salim Abdool Karim, MB.Ch.B, Ph.D.
1 credit

Grant Writing

Students will be introduced to grant writing and peer review. In the first two weeks, sessions will cover study design, writing abstracts, specific aims, background, preliminary studies, and methods. Other sessions will include budget and justification development, how to select funding agencies and types of applications. Students will then write an R01 grant application. The students will then serve as "study section" review groups to provide primary and secondary reviews for each proposal.
Faculty: David Vlahov, Ph.D.
1 credit

Changing Health Policy AIDS as Exemplar

The new course will use HIV/AIDS advocacy as an extended case study to examine the issues, actors, and venues for affecting health policy. Particular attention will be paid to the implications of the different policy priorities of different affected populations (for example, health care providers, health care institutions, gay men, impoverished urban neighborhoods). Different approaches to influencing local, state and federal health policy will be discussed as will the role of advocacy organizations, community groups, and professional organizations.
Faculty: Ruth Finkelstein, Sc.D.
1 credit

New Business Development in Health Care

Students will learn how to conduct competitive analyses, estimate market share, develop management structures, and formulate financial forecasts and capital needs. This applied course offers students the opportunity to get hands-on training and expert guidance while developing their own business plans.
Faculty: Mitchell Blutt, M.D., M.B.A.
3 credits

Information Skills

The objective of this course is to provide a knowledge base, skills and techniques for performing literature searches on a variety of search engines and provides instruction in quality filters. Participants acquire the skills to adjust searches and to critically evaluate the results by using various search techniques.
Faculty: Mary E. Charlson, M.D. and Information Services Team
2 credits

Multidisciplinary Conferences and Colloquia

The multidisciplinary conferences and seminars focus on important issues in health services research. They are designed to stimulate new interest and involvement in clinical research, create a supportive environment for new clinical and health services research projects, and demonstrate the value of multidisciplinary collaboration. The Health Policy seminars cover a broad range of topics relevant to health policy and involve both Weill Cornell Medical College faculty and many distinguished individuals from a broad range of fields in New York and from around the nation.

Research Methodology Conference

The objective of this course is to review problems with design and conduct of studies. The course operates as "think tank" on issues, and includes a full meeting of a multidisciplinary group consisting of clinical epidemiologists, biostatisticians, health educators, health services researchers, health economists, data systems experts, psychologists and cooperating investigators.

David Rogers Health Policy Colloquium

The objective of this course is to provide broad exposure to the cultural, social, political and economic issues shaping health policy. Weekly sessions are held with outside speakers from local, state and national government, as well as with private industry analysts, foundation executives and staff, health policy think tank analysts, academics and consumer and community interest groups.