In order to make a difference in the health and well-being of a population, we must understand the burden of all problems and conditions that affect the population, as well as how well our efforts to mitigate these problems are actually working. This course provides you with some essential skills and tools that will enhance your ability to describe and understand the health of your community. The tools that epidemiologists use are in fact useful for all public health practitioners, including data scientists, program officials, agency leaders, and policymakers. Whether you are deeply enmeshed in your career and looking to augment your skills, or are looking to change career paths into the field of public health, this course will give you some of the practical knowledge and skills that we hope you can apply in your professional endeavors.
This course is part of the Epidemiology in Public Health Practice Specialization
Offered By
Epidemiology in Public Health Practice SpecializationJohns Hopkins UniversityAbout this Course
Learner Career Outcomes
11%
What you will learn
Be conversant in public health history, services, governance, and workforce.
Perform numeric estimates to assess public health problems and evaluate the burden of a condition in a population
Use data visualization as an epidemiological tool to describe risk factors
Apply basic mapping skills and a tool for epidemiologic descion-making
Skills you will gain
Learner Career Outcomes
11%
Offered by
Johns Hopkins University
The mission of The Johns Hopkins University is to educate its students and cultivate their capacity for life-long learning, to foster independent and original research, and to bring the benefits of discovery to the world.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Role of Epidemiology in Public Health
We will start by discussing the definitions of public health and epidemiology and discuss what components of individuals and their lives that we must address in order to optimize their health and well-being. In this section, we will also introduce the hands-on exercise for this course.
Numeric Estimates in Epidemiology
In this module, we will examine the definitions for and sources of the core numeric values we need to describe the health and well-being of a population, which are numerators, the counts of an event or disease, and the denominator, the population from which events are drawn. We will then manipulate those numbers to derive ratios, proportions, and rates, which are core measures used to describe the burden of public health problems.
Depiction of Epidemiologic Data
In this module, we will explore the tool of data visualization, understand basic components of effective visualizations, and walk through practical exercises of identifying strengths and weaknesses of specific visualizations towards meeting their stated goals. You will then have the opportunity to create a data visualization from data regarding risk factors for common public health problems using the global disease-burden database of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
Basic Mapping of Epidemiologic Data
Maps and geographic information systems have become a cornerstone in public health and epidemiologic work in all communities. In this module, we will discuss how place matters in public health and how understanding the geographic distribution of a disease or risk factor is an important component of designing appropriate interventions. We will then discuss GIS as a tool for displaying spacial data and conduct a detailed exploration of how spatial data is stored and displayed by GIS software. You will download an open source GIS application known as QGIS, extract both spatial and epidemiologic data from the US Census Bureau, and create a map of your own.
Reviews
TOP REVIEWS FROM ESSENTIAL EPIDEMIOLOGIC TOOLS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICE
Thank you. I have learnt about the basic tools which are essential for public health. Had a great time while learning. But I think exercising QGIS should have a little more information and detailing.
Its great to do this course on epidemiology. I learned few new things which i didn't get earlier. In GIS exercise, will it be possible to give a live or online exercise? That would be more fruitful.
Excellent course! Epidemiology is my passion and I realize how much I do not know about this subject and how eager I am to learn so much more! Thank you John Hopkins for this amazing opportunity!
It was great. A very usefull introduction to the epidemioly. As the title, it was about the essential epidemiological tools, i really liked it. Now I have a clear knowledgment for the public health.
About the Epidemiology in Public Health Practice Specialization
This specialization is intended for people working or aspiring to work in the field of public health at the local, regional, and national level. Over five courses taught by faculty from the preeminent school of public health, you'll learn to use the core epidemiologic toolset to measure the health of populations, assess interventions, collect and analyze data, and investigate outbreaks and epidemics.
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