Ph.D. Course Offerings and Requirements

Required Courses

Credits (Theory - Practice - Self-study)

RACE 611 Clinical Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Medicine 3(1-4-4) - Syllabus (PDF)

Study designs, bias, and interaction; epidemiologic measurement and health indicators; observational studies: case-control, cross-sectional, and cohort-based; evaluation of health care systems and policy implications.

RACE 612 Study Designs and Measurements 3(2-2-5) - Syllabus (PDF)

Study designs, bias, and interaction. Epidemiologic measurement and health indicators. Observational studies: Case-control, cross-sectional and cohort. Evaluation of health care systems and policy implications.

RACE 603 Research Protocol Design 2(1-2-3) - Syllabus (PDF)

Proposal writing and literature review; research questions and selection of study populations; measurement of study factors and outcomes; statistical analyses and sample size estimation; and practicing proposal presentation.

RACE 614 Medical Informatics and Database Management 2(1-2-3) - Syllabus (PDF)

Medical informatics for clinical research and practice. Advanced methods of searching literature; and medical information storage and data management. Designing data collection forms and database libraries. The development of databases and quality control.

RACE 615 Introduction to Medical Statistics 3(1-4-4) - Syllabus (PDF)

Statistical inference for continuous data: the comparison between 2 means (independent t-test and dependent t-test), analysis of variance (ANOVA, ANCOVA). Test for association and regression analyses of quantitative data. Statistical inference of categorical data: chi-square test, Fisher exact test, odds ratio and relative risk sample size estimation.

RACE 616 Advanced Analysis in Medical Research 3(1-4-4) - Syllabus (PDF)

Analysis of contingency tables (2x2, >2x2). Logistic regression analysis. Survival analysis. Cox regression analysis. Parametric model: Exponential, Gramma, Weinbull distribution.

RACE 607 Clinical Economics 2(1-2-3) - Syllabus (PDF)

Financing of health care and Medicare coverage. Economic evaluation. Principles of economic appraisal in health care: inequity in health, health care utilization, and medico-legal liability. Decision analysis.

RACE 608 Social Science in Clinical Practice and Research 2(2-0-4) - Syllabus (PDF)

Theoretical models in health and social science. Decisions in medical practice and treatment cooperation: medical service, treatment-seeking behavior, patient-physician relationship. Human behavioral change. Qualitative research.

Elective Courses

Credits (Theory - Practice - Self-study)

RACE 617 Randomized Controlled Trial 2(1-2-3) - Syllabus (PDF)

Defining and selecting participants, interventions, comparison groups, and outcome assessments. Randomization, allocation concealment, blinding and maximizing follow up. Management of large randomized-controlled trials. Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT). Advance designs such as factorial, cluster, and cross-over designs. Sampling techniques.

RACE 618 Systematic Review & Meta Analysis 2(1-2-3) - Syllabus (PDF)

Scientific review methodology and meta-analysis. Formulation of research questions and selecting studies (inclusion and exclusion criteria). Locating relevant articles and systematic review. Designing of data extraction, quality assessment, and planning for data synthesis. Protocol development of systematic review. Meta-analysis for dichotomous or continuous data. Heterogeneity and publication bias in meta-analysis.

Dissertation

Credits (Theory - Practice - Self-study)

RACE 699 Dissertation 48(0-192-0)

The Dissertation can be a single, large study or a series of small studies. A single, large study can be a multi-centered RCT, cohort, case-control, or surveyed research. For a Dissertation which features a series of small studies, there should be 2-4 studies and each study should be related to each other. The resulting studies are expected to be published in international journals. Students can select research topics in their area of interest. The program will provide 3 supervisors or more, in which 2 supervisors should be a part of the program (e.g., Methodologist and Biostatistician) and the other supervisor can be a clinician who has expertise in that area of interest. Students are expected to work regularly with supervisors in developing research protocol until the study has been completed (i.e., paper published).