Degree and Certificate Programs

Degree and Certificate Programs associated with the Clinical Epidemiology Area of Interest are designed primarily to train clinicians and other health care professionals with the quantitative skills needed for clinical research. This area offers rigorous training in research methodology, whereby students take core courses in epidemiology and biostatistics to develop basic skills in study design and analysis. This core training is augmented by a wide variety of advanced methods courses in epidemiology and biostatistics and also pertinent courses offered by other departments addressing related topics such as decision analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, health services research, and quality improvement of health care.

A large percentage of students seeking training from this Area of Interest  hold faculty or fellowship positions at the various Harvard Teaching Hospitals. However, the degree and certificate programs associated with this Area of Interest also attract clinicians from other national and international sites.

It is highly recommended that training from this Area of Interest initiate by enrolling in the summer Program in Clinical Effectiveness. Students completing the Program in Clinical Effectiveness receive a certificate of completion by that program.

Perhaps the most appropriate research training degree program related to this Area of Interest is the Summer-Only 42.5 credit Master of Science in Epidemiology Degree Program. Students in this program complete a variety of condensed blocks courses through the Program in Clinical Effectiveness, the Summer Session for Public Health Studies, or the January  Winter Session  at HSPH. In addition, these students have the option of taking targeted online courses offered during the fall semester at HSPH.

Faculty from this Area of Interest also co-developed and taught in Health in Numbers: Quantitative Methods in Clinical and Public Health Research (PH207X) one of the first two Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) offered by Harvard University, which enrolled over 50,000 students throughout the world and granted certificates of completion to over 5,000 students.