Epidemiology (Non-Thesis): Pharmacoepidemiology (M.Sc.) (48 credits)
Offered by: Epidemiology and Biostatistics (Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences)
Degree: Master of Science
Program credit weight: 48
Program Description
This program provides in-depth training for graduate students on pharmacoepidemiologic methods and the application of these methods to study the population effects (benefits and harm) of pharmaceutical products. Students will develop knowledge and capacity to critically evaluate pharmacoepidemiologic studies, learn how to apply specific methods and understand how to apply research results for knowledge translation or policy purpose. Career opportunities for graduates are multiple and include work in industry, government, or academia. Students will be required to participate in the Pharmacoepidemiology Journal Club. Research topics must be related to pharmacoepidemiology and approved by the program coordinating committee.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Research (12 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EPIB 691 | Research Project in Epidemiology. | 12 |
Research Project in Epidemiology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Students will critically assess research and summarize the findings in a research paper on a health related topic from an epidemiologic perspective. Topic to be approved by faculty member who will direct student and evaluate the paper. | ||
Required Courses (25 credits)
Students exempted from any of the courses listed below must replace them with additional complementary course credits at the 500 level or higher.
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EPIB 601 | Fundamentals of Epidemiology. | 4 |
Fundamentals of Epidemiology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to epidemiologic concepts and corresponding terms. After an introduction to the history, definition, and purposes of epidemiology, "core" concepts that are relevant in several areas of investigation (e.g., etiologic research, health care research, and community medicine practice) will be presented. | ||
| EPIB 603 | Intermediate Epidemiology. | 4 |
Intermediate Epidemiology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Concepts and methods for epidemiology at the intermediate level, including causation, measures of disease occurrence and effect, study designs, biases in epidemiologic research, interaction, and data analysis for categorical and survival data using statistical software. | ||
| EPIB 605 | Critical Appraisal in Epidemiology. | 1 |
Critical Appraisal in Epidemiology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course provides the opportunity to develop skills to critically evaluate evidence presented in the biomedical and health sciences literature, based on the concepts acquired in the epidemiology introductory courses. | ||
| EPIB 607 | Inferential Statistics. | 4 |
Inferential Statistics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to the basic principles of statistical inference used in clinical and epidemiologic research. Topics include variability; methods of processing and describing data; sampling and sampling distributions; inferences regarding means and proportions, non-parametric methods, regression and correlation. | ||
| EPIB 613 | Introduction to Statistical Software. | 1 |
Introduction to Statistical Software. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to statistical software and data management; including basics of entering, manipulating data and elementary statistical analysis, SAS software, with reference to other packages of potential interest to students (R, Stata, SPSS). | ||
| EPIB 621 | Data Analysis in Health Sciences. | 4 |
Data Analysis in Health Sciences. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Univariate and multivariate statistical techniques for continuous categorical and survival data. Topics include generalized linear models, multiple linear and logistic regression, introductory survival analysis, model selection. Maximum likelihood and Bayesean approaches will be presented. | ||
| EPIB 634 | Fundamentals of Pharmacoepidemiology. | 3 |
Fundamentals of Pharmacoepidemiology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The objective of this course is for students to develop an understanding of the design and analysis of pharmacoepidiologic studies. It includes didactic lectures, group discussions, and the examination of examples from the medical literature. Topics covered including an overview of commonly used study designs, exposure and outcome assessment, new-user designs, healthy-user effects, non-traditional study designs, and the role of confounding and methods used to minimize it. Biases particularly relevant to pharmacoepidemiology are also discussed. | ||
| EPIB 662 | Pharmacological Basis of Pharmacoepidemiology. | 1 |
Pharmacological Basis of Pharmacoepidemiology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The objective of this course is to provide students with an indepth review of the principles of pharmacology which are essential for the design, analysis and critical appraisal of studies in pharmacoepidemiology. | ||
| PPHS 602 | Foundations of Population Health. | 3 |
Foundations of Population Health. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to population health and the conceptual basis of the population health approach to measuring disease occurrence and to prevention. Fundamentals of, and methods for, studying burden of disease in population, and how these differ across time, space, and groups. Topics include population dynamics, denominators, occurrence of events, time, person and place, health indicators, standardization, life tables, age, cohort and period effects, disease surveillance and vital statistics. Introduction to the concepts and principles of measurement including measurement error, validity, reliability, and accuracy. | ||
Complementary Courses (11 credits)
11 credits of coursework, at the 500 level or higher, chosen in consultation with the student's academic adviser or supervisor. Courses must be approved by the program's academic adviser.