PhD Curriculum

The degree of Doctor of Philosophy is awarded in recognition of in-depth knowledge in a major field and comprehensive understanding of related subjects together with a demonstration of ability to perform independent investigation and to communicate the results of such investigation in an acceptable dissertation. Our goal is to produce leaders of the next generation of interdisciplinary health scientists. To prepare them, through courses and research, our goal is to train students to use analytic methods to understand biological, epidemiological, social and behavioral, and health services aspects of the population’s health, ultimately to reduce and/or prevent morbidity and early mortality.

General Requirements

The Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics comprises the following components:

• Core Curriculum (24 credits)
• Specialization/Concentration (9 -12 credits)
• Electives (6 credits)
• Seminar Requirements
• Qualifying Exam
•  Portfolio Presentation
•  Dissertation (18 credits)

 *Electives may be limited to a specific menu of courses within a concentration

Basic Core Curriculum (24 credits) 

The basic core curriculum is designed to provide PhD students with a strong foundation in epidemiology and biostatistics, together with health service research - the fields that comprise population health sciences - and the methodological and analytic training to conduct a rigorous, high quality dissertation in the student’s selected specialization or concentration.   The Basic Core Curriculum comprises 24 credits in the following courses:

• EPBI 440: Introduction to Population Health
• EPBI 490: Epidemiology: Introduction to Theory and Methods
• EPBI 460: Introduction to Health Services Research
• EPBI 431: Statistical Methods I
• EPBI 465: Design and Measurement in Population Health Sciences
• EPBI 432: Statistical Methods II  
• EPBI 436: Essence of Multilevel Statistical Modeling, Including Repeated Measures Analysis (1 credit)
• EPBI 437: Essence of Classical Multivariate Analysis (1 credit)
• EPBI 438: Essence of Structural Equation Modeling (1 credit)
• EPBI 445: Research Ethics in Population Health Sciences (1 credit)
• EPBI 444: Communicating in Population Health Science Research (2 credits)

Typically, but not necessarily, students enter the PhD program after completing a relevant master’s degree, such as a Master of Science (MS) or Master of Public Health (MPH) degree.   If the student’s MS or MPH degree is from CWRU, core courses that were taken as part of their master’s degree will be waived as a PhD requirement. Core courses for which the student has had the equivalent elsewhere may be replaced (not waived) with courses to promote the student’s career or strengthen an area of weakness (see Replacing a core course under the Master of Science Degree).

The entering PhD student should have general computer competency/literacy. Students who do not have a working knowledge of computers and basic statistical packages (i.e., SAS, R, SPSS) are required to take the course EPBI 414, Introduction to Statistical Computing, during their first fall semester in residence. To waive the prerequisite, the student must provide documentation of a similar undergraduate or graduate course completed with a minimum grade of “B” and a detailed description of the course or a compelling description of their statistical computing capabilities, substantiated by experience and documented by examples of their work.

For more detailed information regarding the core curriculum and the other components of the PhD program, review the PhD Student Handbook. 

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44106-4945