Graduate Prerequisites: Primarily for epidemiology doctoral students. MPH, MS, and other doctoral students must have completed EP854 and have consent of the instructor. - At its essence, epidemiology comprises a set of tools for answering questions in public health. This seminar-style course, based on a guided discussion of historical and recent papers, is intended to deepen students’ knowledge of study design so that they can better recognize and hopefully either avoid or reduce the influence of common, but at times under-appreciated, sources of biases in research question formulation, measurement, effect estimation, and interpretation. We ground the course in revisiting the mission of epidemiology and surveying the theoretical frameworks that underpin research questions in public health, e.g., what gets asked, who is enrolled, what gets measured, what adjustments are made. Example topics include study efficiency, measures of effect, random error, misclassification, casual diagrams, direct and indirect effects, and collider bias. Each topic entails reading and student-led discussions of methodological papers. Students also develop skills in writing and speaking through classroom discussion, writing assignments, and a written exam.

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