Public Health: Design Clin&Translational Res

Seminar emphasizing the skills for designing and executing clinical and translational research.

Open to all Graduate Students: Other students require instructor permission; Must submit request at http://go.uvm.edu/phcourses; for questions contact Program Advisor Pallas Ziporyn at pallas.ziporyn@uvm.edu; Asynchronous online course. PACE students by permission and override.

PH 6102 is intended for public health students, public health professionals, healthcare professionals, and graduate students who want to learn how to design clinical and translational research. No previous research experience is required, however an understanding of searching and reading health-related literature is helpful. The course is taught online in an asynchronous format. Students will learn how to design and critically evaluate clinical and translational research by working through design scenarios, preparing a research protocol, and participating in peer review. The topic of the protocol will be selected by the student. The format will be consistent with the Research Strategy section of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Small Research Grant (R03), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant, or equivalent program. Course objectives include learning how to discuss, review, and design research. Successful completers of this course will know how to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of research designs common to clinical and translational research, critically evaluate research protocols, and design an original research protocol, including posing an important research question, choosing an appropriate research design, identifying appropriate subjects, designing measurements and developing plans to collect and analyze data, estimating sample size requirements, and preparing a project timeline.

This asynchronous, online course combines lecture, discussion, and writing formats. Students should expect to spend 3 hours per week interacting with course content and discussions and 6 hours per week on related work outside of class (e.g. preparing their research protocol). Students are expected to read all assigned materials, prepare their final protocols, and participate in class discussions. Each module will include one or more chapters from the textbook, and one or two assigned articles. Over the course of the semester, students will prepare sections of their research protocol culminating in their final project. The class will meet in a special session to review all the protocols. Each protocol will be reviewed by a primary and secondary reviewer as is commonly done by National Institutes of Health (NIH) study sections and other granting agencies. Each student will have the opportunity to serve as a primary and secondary reviewer. The reviewers will present the student's protocol to the rest of the class who will discuss the pros and cons and come to a decision about scientific merit. The course is at the graduate level and non-participation is incompatible with receiving the full benefits of the class. The same course requirements are expected of all students, regardless of whether a student is receiving course credit or auditing.

Grades will be based on participation, weekly assignments, a midterm, a final research protocol, and peer review.