This course is designed to introduce course participants to the key concepts and principles of healthcare management, and to engage them in a scientific dialogue and discussion that will trigger their professional thinking throughout their future work in the context of the key public health issues and health systems management challenges reported in the international health arena and understand and apply these scientific evidence and experiences of other countries health systems to the Saudi context and the Gulf region.

This course first describe the history, principles, and concepts of epidemiologic research in order to have clear understanding and able to apply measures of disease incidence (risk, rate and odds) and prevalence, and measures of association and public health impact. It usually makes to assess strengths and limitations of different sources of epidemiological data on health status and health service utilization in both industrialized and developing countries. However more understanding of the relevance and benefit of the discipline of basic epidemiology in health will be established and clear distinction between different types of epidemiological study designs will be studied. This will make student capable to use it in planning, conducting and evaluating epidemiologic studies as part of their project work.

Statistic as science is become important for use in the different aspects. It brings more understanding of the concepts of statistical inference, the fundamentals probability theory and related analytical techniques. So hypothesis tests will be used side by side with the construct of confidence intervals in medical and public health context and how to make interpretation of linear and logistic regression and appreciate their strengths and assumption for their applications. The student will be able also to analyze and interpret data from epidemiological studies, make differences between qualitative and quantitative studies and finally be capable to obtain a thorough understanding of modern statistical computing.

This course sets out to examine environmental health science and occupational health with particular emphasis on the regional and local context. The aim of the course is to introduce students to the nature and scope of environmental health and occupational health theory and practice. Particular emphasis is placed on the importance of environmental health science issues and how they relate to public health in the Saudi Arabian economic and socio-cultural context.

Introduction to epidemiology (history, the epidemiologic approach). Measures of disease frequency, prevalence, and incidence. The risk approach (risk factors, relative risk, odds ratio, attributable risk). Types of epidemiological studies (descriptive studies, case-control studies, cohort studies, longitudinal studies, intervention studies). Assessing the accuracy of a test or surveillance system (specificity, sensitivity and predictive value).

Understand the concepts of statistical inference, the fundamentals probability theory and related analytical techniques. Apply hypothesis tests and construct confidence intervals in medical and public health context Understand the theoretical basis of linear and logistic regression and appreciate their strengths and assumption for their applications. Analyze and interpret data from epidemiological studies. Understand differences between qualitative and quantitative studies

Understand epidemiologic inference and statistical modelling including linear, logistic, and Cox regression models. Account for the presence of confounding bias using both stratified approaches and multivariable regression. Use different approaches to modelling complex exposures including dose-response. relationships & time-varying exposures. Critically discuss model limitations with respect to: misspecification, outliers and residual bias.

Differentiate between types of epidemiological studies. Elements of the design, conduct and analysis of cohort and case-control studies. Advantages and disadvantages of case-control studies relative to cohort designs. Precision and validity in epidemiological studies. Design of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT). Sources of bias in RCT design and mechanisms to prevent them. Selection of cases and controls in case-control studies. Comparability of information in case-control studies.

Formulate and apply multivariate statistical models for continuous, categorical, survival and count outcomes. Analyze data from longitudinal and other studies with multivariate outcomes. Appreciate the effect of correlation in longitudinal data. Analysis of controlled experiments and observational studies.

Discuss the specific concepts and methodological issues that concern researchers in two specialty areas: nutritional epidemiology and genetic epidemiology. Epidemiologic studies of nutritional exposures. Measurement of diet in epidemiologic studies. Biochemical indicators of diet. Anthropometry and measures of body composition. Methodological issues in nutritional epidemiology. Introduction to genetics. Quantitative and qualitative traits, genetic risk models, migration and admixture.

Fundamentals of epidemiology of nosocomial infections, community infections, noncommunicable diseases, chronic diseases, injuries and disabilities. Introduction to field epidemiology for primary health care. All aspects of conducting epidemiologic field investigations. Healthcare management with particular focus on disease prevention and health inequality reduction. Healthcare and health promotion evaluation projects

Understand all aspects of designing, conduct and analysis of observational studies and randomized control trials (RCT). Observational studies and controlled experiments Designing observational studies. Hidden bias and sensitivity analysis. Propensity scoring and matching. Assessment of health-related quality of life.

Understand the rationale and concepts of evidence-based medicine. Distinguish the levels of evidence and the study designs for each level of evidence. Apply methods of critical appraisal to assess the quality of methods and the findings of research studies. Understand the differences between systematic and narrative reviews. Conduct systematic reviews and assess evidence for health care policy. Conduct meta-analysis, with effect size estimation and interpretation of the results

Students conducting a research project will identify a problem to be studied, review the literature associated with the problem, collect data about the problem (quantitative &/or qualitative), analyze the data in order to either support or refute a pre-selected hypothesis or answer research questions, discuss the findings, present conclusions, and make recommendations based on the study.​​​​​​