CORE CURRICULUM

The course starts in June and lasts for 24 months. It is divided into a 9-month coursework followed by 15 months thesis preparation and execution. The total credit hours for the 2-year course is 48.

Contents of the coursework

Component I : Using Information in Health Care and Health Research

Objectives: The student should be able to:

- Develop one’s own personal information system as an aid to self-instruction. 
- Conduct a manual and a computer search on a specific topic.
- Appraise the quality of research information on health.
- Develop a database for a common problem in one’s own field of interest.
- Identify when more (or new) information is needed to solve a specific health problem.
- Appropriately apply new information to solve a health problem.
- Identify the key requirements for the development of appropriate information technology in one’s own country.
- Find sources of information about vital statistics, morbidity, disability, handicap and quality of life for international and local comparisons.

Contents

- Information Access (use of library, computer searches, information technology, journals, books, video, slides, personal information system) 
- Critical Appraisal of Research Information on Health (standard techniques for assessment of trials, observational studies, reviews, health service research)
- Data Handling and Archiving of Information (methods for library, patient records, own personal information, computer systems)
- Information Retrieval (indexing, computer search systems, own personal system)
- Communication / Dissemination of Information (presentation of information suitable for different types of teaching, for different audiences, basic communication skills, lecturing, small group work, preparing study notes and presentations)


Component II : Health Research Methodology and Biostatistics

Objectives: The student should be able to:
 - Identify and examine a problem and break it down into testable hypotheses.
 - Design a suitable study to test a hypothesis.
 - Collect the data, validate some variables, enter the data onto a computer and use the standard
    statistical packages.
- Use appropriate statistics for summarizing the data, testing the hypothesis, and statistical modelling.
Contents - Clinical Epidemiology (populations, samples, risk, causality, bias, abnormality, diagnosis, treatment , prevention, prognosis)
- Indicators of Health and Estimation of Magnitude of Health Problem (vital statistics, morbidity, disability, handicap, quality of life, disability-adjusted-life-years)
- Research Methodology (posing research questions, choosing suitable study design, selecting & allocating study populations, employing intervention, assessing outcomes and variables, and ethical consideration.)
- Biostatistics (probability, probability distributions, sample size estimation, descriptive & inferential statistics, and statistical modelling).


Component III : Health Measurement
Objectives
 The student should be able to: - Select appropriate measures regarding research questions and research objectives.

- List the advantages and disadvantages of qualitative versus quantitative techniques of variable identification in health measurement.
- Construct questionnaires and scales for use in research projects.
- List methods to measure and ensure reliability, validity, and control of bias in measurement, including difficult to measure variables such as quality of life.
- Apply basic statistical methods to measure reliability.
Contents - Principles of Measurement (validity, reliability)
- Variables (types, methods of selection, reduction)
- Data Collection (interview, questionnaire, behavioral measurement, structured observation, focus group discussion)
- Development of Measure (questionnaire design, multiple-item rating scale, scaling, data reduction)
- Perspectives on Health Problems (socio-cultural, bio-medical)


Component IV : Health Evaluation
Objectives
The student should be able to: - Decide on health priorities for action, giving appropriate reasons for choices at a local and at a national level.
- Write a series of objectives for a specific health priority (e.g. immunization, control of hypertension) which will indicate how the problem will be tackled.
- Distinguish process evaluation from outcome evaluation and list circumstances where each may be used.
- Understand the concepts of clinical economics.
- Perform cost identification, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-benefit analysis and cost-utility analysis.
- Conduct an audit of one aspect of a local health service (e.g. prescribing, medical records, management of acute trauma).
- Present the results of the audit to the relevant health workers, together with a written report.
Contents - Setting priorities, objectives, process and outcomes.
- Clinical Economics (health care costs, discounting, hospital costing, health care financing, cost minimization, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-benefit analysis and cost-utility analysis, sensitivity analysis)
- Decision analysis


Component V : Change & Development

Objectives: The student should be able to:
- Identify key factors that promote and inhibit innovations in local and national health services.
- Understand the influence of politics using a theoretical framework indicating where change can and cannot occur.
- Review a local and a national health budget and decide on making modifications including justifications for decisions.
- Write a plan for country’s health needs, highlighting specific social and political factors that may hinder or promote the success of the plan.
- Find and appraise information that will assist in making choices between different control strategies.
- Critically assess published reports of health service innovations.
- Describe personal strengths and weaknesses as an agent of change/innovation.
Contents - Theories of change (individual, group, organizations)
- Reasons for change (e.g. primary health care, needs orientated approach, efficiency, effectiveness)
- Rural / urban difference (different priorities, techniques, reasons for change)
- Resource allocation (budgets, sources of funding, control of resources)
- Reactive versus proactive approaches
- Health policy and planning (local , national, international)
- Evaluation studies (use of data to direct change)
- Experimental Approaches (pilot schemes, comparisons)
- Social and political factors (e.g. role of women, literacy, religion, health versus military spending)