Welcome to the University of Washington
EPI590 Course Home Page!
September 18-22, 2006

Registration | Audience and Course Objectives | Prerequisites | Class Hours | Class location | Meals | Lead Instructor | Textbooks and References | Grading and Student Responsibilities | Class Size | Disabled Student Services | Outline of Lectures | Lectures | PDF

Registration

For information about course registration please contact:
University of Washington Extension

(206) 685-8936
1-800-543-2320
email certif2@ese.washington.edu

Top

Audience and Course Objectives

This course is designed to give the student an introduction to research methods in the field of injury prevention and injury outcomes. The course will be useful to those who either wish to conduct research regarding the causes and outcomes of injuries, or those who need to evaluate injury research studies. This course is suitable for graduate students in epidemiology, MPH graduates, or professionals such as emergency physicians, trauma surgeons, nurses, or persons in public health who have an interest in injury prevention. The course will include selected readings form the injury research literature and students will participate in group discussions to develop a research proposal. The course will discuss the following topics:

1. Selecting an injury research design, including
• Randomized controlled trials
• Cohort studies
• Case-control studies
• Ecologic studies
• Qualitative methods
2. Develop a research question
3. Develop a research proposal
4. Protecting human subjects in injury research
5. Use administrative databases
6. Search the injury research literature

Top

Prerequisites

This is a graduate level course in research methods. Students should have at least some training or familiarity with research study design. For example, students should have some idea of the difference between a randomized controlled trial, a cohort study, and a case-control study. While formal training in biostatistics is not needed, students should have some knowledge regarding the concept of statistical significance. The course is suitable for graduate level students in epidemiology or the health sciences or professionals who are accustomed to reading the biomedical literature. [For people interested in developing and implementing injury prevention programs, the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center offers such a course - you can obtain further information from HIPRC at 206-744-9430.]

Students with little background in study design should consider reading one of the following texts before taking this course:

• Gordis L. Epidemiology, 2 nd ed. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 2000.
• MacMahon B, Trichopoulos D. Epidemiology: Principles and Methods, 2 nd ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1996.
• Koepsell TD, Weiss NS. Epidemiologic Methods: Studying the Occurrence of Illness. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Top

Class Hours

Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 3 PM, with 1 hour for lunch.

Top

Class location

Classrooms will be at the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center in Seattle. HIPRC is located in downtown Seattle at on the 4th floor of the Patricia Bracelin Steel Memorial Building, at 401 Broadway. Parking is difficult in this area. If you can walk or take the bus from where you are staying, we urge that you do this. If you must come by car, come early so that you can find a lot in the area - expect to pay about $13/day.

On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, meet at 8 AM in Room 2097 of the Pat Steel Building. On Thursday, meet at 8 AM in the Research and Training Building, Room 117. Afternoon class meeting locations will be given daily. Room assignments will depend upon group.

Top

Meals

All meals are on your own. There is a place to eat in the building and you can get the product no Seattlite can go without: espresso. Harborview Medical Center is a short walk from HIPRC and has a nice cafeteria. Many restaurants are located on Broadway. The class schedule is tight, so try to pick a place near the injury center.

Top

Lead Instructor

Peter Cummings MD, MPH
Professor of Epidemiology, University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine

Home and office

Top

Textbooks and References

The textbook for the course is: Rivara FP, Cummings P, Koepsell TD, Grossman DC, Maier RV. Injury Control: A Guide to Research and Program Evaluation. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Students are advised to buy this book and read as much as possible before they attend the course. You can purchase this book from any number of online booksellers (e.g., Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com).

Before the course, students will receive a syllabus and copies of articles for class discussions.

Top

Grading and Student Responsibilities

1. Students are expected to attend the lectures, participate in class discussions, and read the assigned material.
2. Class presentation: Friday afternoon will be reserved for student presentations. Students will be assigned to groups and each group will prepare a study proposal a specific injury research question. The group presentations will be critiqued by all students and faculty.
3. Course will be graded credit/no credit. This is a 2 credit graduate course.
4. Students will be asked to evaluate the course.

Top

Class Size

 Minimum enrollment: 12 Maximum: 25

Top

Disabled Student Services

If you would like to request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disabled Student Services, 448 Schmitz, 543-8924 (V/TDD). If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact the instructor as soon as possible.

Top

Outline of Lectures

Monday, September 18

8:10 AM - 9:00 AM  Overview of injury research - Rivara

9:10 AM - 10:00 AM  Selecting a study design - Koepsell

10:10 AM - 10:40 AM   Discussion of a cohort study - Cummings

10:50 AM - Noon  Randomized controlled trials - Koepsell

Noon - 1:00 PM  Lunch

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM  Student groups work on a study proposal with a faculty member

Tuesday, September 19

8:00 AM - 9:20 AM  Cohort studies - Grossman

9:30 AM - 10:20 AM  Qualitative methods - Grossman

10:30 AM - 11:00 AM  Discussion of a randomized controlled trial - Koepsell

11:10 AM - Noon  Case-control studies, Part I - Cummings

Noon - 1:00 PM  Lunch

1:00 PM - 3 PM  Student groups work on a study proposal with a faculty member

Wednesday, September 20

8:00 AM - 8:50 AM  Systematic reviews - Rivara

9:00 AM - 10:20 AM  Case-control studies, Part II - Cummings

10:30 AM - 11:00 AM  Discussion of a case-control study - Koepsell

11:10 AM - Noon  Meta-analytic methods - Cummings

Noon - 1:00 PM  Lunch

1:00 PM - 3 PM   Student groups work on a study proposal with a faculty member.

Thursday, September 21

8:00 AM - 8:50 AM  Human subjects review - McGough

9:00 AM - 9:40 AM  Sample size and study power - Koepsell

9:40 AM - 10:20 AM  Ecologic studies - Koepsell

10:30 AM - 11:00 AM  Discussion of an ecologic study - Koepsell

11:10 AM - Noon  Data entry, cleaning, analysis - Cummings

Noon - 1:00 PM  Lunch

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM  Student groups work on a study proposal with a faculty member

Friday, September 22

8:00 AM - 8:50 AM  Injury severity scores - Rivara

9:00 AM - 9:50 AM  Search the injury literature by computer - Beahler

10:00 AM - 10:30 AM  Discussion of a study - Cummings

10:40 AM - Noon  Counting and classifying injuries - Cummings

Noon - 1:00 PM  Lunch

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM  Students present study proposals to all faculty and students

Description of the Afternoon Sessions

Before the course begins, a list of specific injury research questions will be sent to the enrolled students. Students will be asked to rank the questions in order of interest to them. The faculty will then assign each student to a group that will meet each afternoon under the direction of Dr. Cummings or Dr. Koepsell. In those sessions the students will be asked to develop a formal study proposal, including specific aims, a study design, and a discussion of the study methods, including population, data collection, data entry, data cleaning, data analysis, power, and human subjects issues. The purpose of these sessions will be to allow the students to apply lessons learned in class and to interactively discuss the issues involved in developing a research proposal. At the end of the week, on Friday afternoon, each group will have 30 minutes to present their proposal to all the faculty and students, with 30 minutes devoted to questions and discussion.

Assignment of instructors to classrooms for the afternoon:
TBA - Koepsell
TBA - Cummings

Top

Lecturers

Christine C. Beahler MLS
Information Management Librarian
Health Sciences Library & Information Center (HSLIC)T227 Health Sciences Building University of Washington, Box 357155
Seattle, WA 98195-7155
Telephone: 206-543-7478
E-mail: cbeahler@u.washington.edu

David Grossman MD, MPH
Professor, Department of Health Services, Adjunct Professor, Department of Pediatrics
University of Washington, School of Medicine and School of Public Health and Community Medicine
Medical Director, Department of Preventive Care, Group Health Cooperative
Mailing address: 1730 Minor, Ste 1600, Seattle, WA 98101
Telephone: (206) 287-2948
Fax:(206) 287-2485
E-mail: grossman.d@ghc.org

Thomas D. Koepsell MD, MPH
Professor, Departments of Epidemiology and Health Services, University of Washington School of Medicine and School of Public Health and Community Medicine
Former Chair of the Epidemiology Department, 1993-1998.
Mailing address: University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Department of Epidemiology, Health Sciences Center, F-261F, UW Mailbox 357236, Seattle, WA 98195
Telephone: (206) 543-8830
Fax: (206) 543-8525
E-mail: koepsell@u.washington.edu

Helen McGough
Director, Human Subjects Division, Grant and Contract Services
3935 University Way NE #008B
University of Washington, Box 355752
Seattle, WA 98105-6613
Telephone: 206-543-0098
Fax: 206-685-9502
E-mail: hmcgough@u.washington.edu

Top

^ Back to Top