340.620.01 PRINCIPLES OF CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY

Presents lectures and interactive sessions designed to expose students to basic principles of clinical epidemiology and introduce key methods utilized in clinical outcomes research. Focuses on principles and methods in clinical epidemiology which would be most utilized by clinicians/clinician researchers for screening and diagnosis of illness as well as for prognostication and decision-making. Incorporates principles and methods related to measurement of relevant patient outcomes such as patient preferences and health related quality of life. Introduces methods and issues in studying clinical effectiveness of health care technologies and providers (e.g. administrative data).

1. Be able to describe the origins of clinical epidemiology as a discipline and what void in the health sciences clinical epidemiology has filled. 2. Be able to calculate and describe the advantages and disadvantages of using likelihood ratios and ROC curves to evaluate diagnostic tests. 3. Be able to complete simple decision analysis trees. 4. Be able to describe the advantages and disadvantages of using clinical trials, observational studies, decision analyses and meta-analysis techniques to develop clinical practice guidelines. 5. Be able to describe important outcomes and issues in measuring them when evaluating a medical technology or practice.