Mission

The Master of Science (MS) degree program is a broad-based multi-disciplinary graduate level program in clinical research designed to prepare clinical and translational research faculty, residents and others for a career in clinical research. The program provides training in the principles and methods of biostatistics; epidemiology, including genetics and clinical trials; and outcomes research, including health services research and health economics; and application of these principles/methods to clinical research.

The program is physically located at the Clinical Research Center on the main campus of Morehouse School of Medicine.

Goals

  • To increase the overall pool of doctorally prepared minority investigators who are interested in pursuing clinical and translational research training.
  • Develop a cadre of well-trained clinicians and translational research faculty who will pursue clinical research on diseases that disproportionately affect minority populations.
  • Promote interdisciplinary discourse and scientific exchange among students, faculty, and research mentors participating in the MSCR program.

Expectations

  • Demonstrate knowledge of ethical issues in the field of clinical research, including the use of data involving human subjects, and be able to prepare a human consent form for a research protocol.
  • Understand the principles of the design and conduct of clinical trials with attention to protocol preparation, randomization, sample size, trial monitoring, ethical issues, and data analysis.
  • Understand principles of health services research and methods in assessing heath-care quality and costs. Prepare a National Institutes of Health proposal, including a budget using Public Health Service Form 398.
  • Design observational and experimental studies, demonstrate understanding of potential sources of bias and confounding and methods of addressing them in the design and execution of studies.
  • Critically review and summarize the literature on a given topic. Identify and evaluate demographic, behavioral, social and environmental factors that have an impact on the distribution of disease in populations.
  • Participate as a team member in identifying clinical research questions and selecting appropriate study designs and methods to address those questions.
  • Identify and access sources of health and medical data, such as vital statistics records, disease registries, national surveys, and medical records; describe how these data are collected and their role in surveillance and disease prevention.
  • Assist in the design and administration of instruments for collection of epidemiological/medical data for the purposes of surveillance or research.
  • Give oral presentations and produce written reports on topics relevant to academic medicine.
  • Appreciate the role of genetic factors and their interaction with environmental factors in the etiology and prevention of human disease.
  • Perform basic statistical tests, recognize the assumptions behind the analysis and interpret the results.
  • Use computer statistical software packages for data entry, database management, data summary, data analysis and display research results.
  • Generate descriptive statistics and graphics to summarize and display clinical data.
  • Analyze epidemiologic/clinical data using basic statistical tests and measures of association.