Archives

Committee on Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS)

Spring 2021

The Making Of The “Good Physician”: Virtue, Ethics and the Development of Moral Character in Medicine — CCTS 21005/41005
Instructor(s): John Yoon, Michael Hawking
Time: TBA
Location: Online
Notes: This is a yearlong course. Students must register for Autumn, Winter, and Spring Quarters to receive 100 units at the end of Spring 2021.

The Scholars in Ethics and Medicine (SEM) program is a yearlong opportunity for a select group of students to collaborate with exemplar physician-scholars and medical ethicists to think through the features required of a good health care clinician. Members of the group collaborate with invited speakers through participation in seminars and small group dinner discussions. Throughout the program, students will think through issues in medical ethics related to the year’s theme will be Virtue, Wisdom, and the Practice of Medicine. The practice of medicine focuses on actions that are intended to promote health and healing, and to do so in ways that are respectful and compassionate. To be aimed at health and to be consistent with our ethical obligations, these actions need to be of a certain kind regarding the ends they pursue and the means they employ. This is to say that these actions need the virtue of practical wisdom, by which we identify the best means to achieve worthwhile ends. How we understand which ends are worthwhile and which means are best will depend on the virtues that guide not only our thoughts and motivations, but also our vision. For virtue influences not only our actions and motivations, but how we see world.  The Scholars in Ethics and Medicine will together explore deep connections between action, vision, wisdom, and virtue as they relate health and healing, in particular how wisdom and virtue are important for seeing patients as whole people, not just bodies to be fixed, in offering compassionate care, among others. More information can be found here: https://hydeparkinstitute.org/hpi-scholars-in-ethics-and-medicine/

Justice, Solidarity, and Global Health — CCTS 21009
Instructor(s): Daniel T. Kim
Time: Tuesday/Thursday from 1:00pm – 2:20pm
Location: Online

Global health, it is said, is “one of the great moral movements of our time.” Health inequalities around the world are staggering, as is their toll on human suffering. What does a just response entail? What moves us to be just, and why do we so often fail? What do our failures of response tell us about the moral complexities involved, and importantly, about ourselves? In this course, we will consider these questions critically in terms of a basic problem of solidarity. Solidarity rests on our capacity for other-regard—for sympathy toward another—but how do we do that for distant others who are worlds apart? Is it possible, and what are the moral dangers of assuming that we can or cannot? We will test the importance of such questions for a just global health by examining some key theories of health justice, the insights of cultural and religious studies, and the question of what moves us to be just.

Intersectionality in American Medical Ethics — CCTS 21010
Instructor(s): Caroline Anglim
Time: Tuesday/Thursday from 9:40am – 11:00am
Location: Online

In this course, we will investigate the history of medical ethics and how the field has been framed around universal principles and rooted in secular philosophies. We will give a hearing to the voices most often silenced through the processes and procedures of medical ethics decision-making and evaluate the social and political impacts of this silencing on particular individuals and minority groups. We will discuss issues of gender, race, and religion and investigate how those identities intersect with one another to impact discrimination, power, and privilege in modern medical ethics. We will conclude the class with an evaluation of the field as a discourse, discipline, practice, or social reform movement, thinking about issues of authority and legitimacy in the public sphere.

Clinical Research Design and Interpretation of Health Data — CCTS 21011/41011
Instructor(s): Gregory Ruhnke
Time: Monday/Wednesday from 4:10pm – 5:30pm
Location: Online

This course will introduce the interdisciplinary field of clinically-oriented health services research with a focus on the interpretation of health-related metrics and policy-related applications. We will examine how translational medical science informs healthcare providers, payers, and professional societies. COVID-19 and postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy will illustrate the challenges of data interpretation, translation of research findings into clinical medicine, and the adoption of evidence-based guidelines. Using a highly interactive approach, students will gain experience in selection of research study designs, measurement of health status, risk adjustment, causal inference, and understanding the placebo effect. We will discuss how clinicians, administrators, and public reporting entities judge and use information derived from investigations. The COVID-19 pandemic will demonstrate the challenges that varied clinical presentations, diagnostic accuracy, and case definition (identification of diseased patients) create in the formulation of health statistics (e.g. case-fatality rates and disease attribution of mortality). We will also discuss methods of defining study populations for both clinical research and public health reporting.

Autumn 2021

Scholars in Ethics and Medicine Cohort (SEM) – CCTS 21005
Instructor(s): Kathryn Rowland 
Time: TBA
Location: TBA

This multi-disciplinary course draws insights from medicine, sociology, moral psychology, philosophy, ethics and theology to explore answers to the unique challenges that medicine faces in the context of late modernity: How does one become a “good physician” in an era of growing moral pluralism and health care complexity? Students will engage relevant literature from across these disciplines to address issues regarding the legitimate goals of medicine, medical professionalism, the doctor-patient relationship, vocation and calling, the role of religion in medicine, and character development in medical education. The course will first introduce the challenges that moral pluralism in contemporary society presents to the profession of medicine along with the subsequent calls for a renewed pursuit of clinical excellence in today’s complex health care system. It will then survey the resurgence of a philosophical discipline (virtue ethics) that has begun to shape contemporary debate regarding what types of “excellences” are needed for a good medical practice dominated by medical science and technology.

Note(s): This course is limited to those who have been accepted into the Emerging Scholars Cohort in Bioethics (Hyde Park Institute, https://hydeparkinstitute.org/esc). Depending on space availability, other students interested in enrolling will need prior approval from Course instructor(s). This course is a yearlong course with several 2-hour lecture discussions throughout the year, 2 all-day Saturday sessions (Fall/Spring), and an off-site practicum. Registration in Autumn, Winter, and Spring Courses is required. The spring quarter course will be worth 50 units.
Equivalent Course(s): CCTS 41005

Advanced Clinical Pharmacology I – CCTS 40004
Instructor(s): Mark Applebaum
Time: Tuesday 02:00 PM-03:20 PM
Location: TBA 

This course provides an interactive introduction to fundamental principles of the practice of clinical pharmacology relevant to drug development and personalized therapeutics. Topics include: pharmacokinetics, drug metabolism, protein binding, absorption and renal and hepatic elimination, pharmacodynamics, introduction to modeling methods, evaluation of adverse events, and pre-clinical and clinical elements of drug development.

Spring 2020

The Challenges Of The “Good Physician”: Virtue, Wisdom and the Practice of Medicine (Scholars in Ethics and Medicine Cohort)—CCTS 21005/41005
Instructor: John Yoon, Michael Hawking
Time: TBA
Location: Online
Notes: This is a yearlong course. Students must register for Autumn, Winter, and Spring Quarters to receive 100 units at the end of Spring 2020.

The Scholars in Ethics and Medicine (SEM) program is a yearlong opportunity for a select group of students to collaborate with exemplar physician-scholars and medical ethicists to think through the features required of a good health care clinician. Members of the group collaborate with invited speakers through participation in seminars and small group dinner discussions. Throughout the program, students will think through issues in medical ethics related to the year’s theme will be Virtue, Wisdom, and the Practice of Medicine. The practice of medicine focuses on actions that are intended to promote health and healing, and to do so in ways that are respectful and compassionate. To be aimed at health and to be consistent with our ethical obligations, these actions need to be of a certain kind regarding the ends they pursue and the means they employ. This is to say that these actions need the virtue of practical wisdom, by which we identify the best means to achieve worthwhile ends. How we understand which ends are worthwhile and which means are best will depend on the virtues that guide not only our thoughts and motivations, but also our vision. For virtue influences not only our actions and motivations, but how we see world.  The Scholars in Ethics and Medicine will together explore deep connections between action, vision, wisdom, and virtue as they relate health and healing, in particular how wisdom and virtue are important for seeing patients as whole people, not just bodies to be fixed, in offering compassionate care, among others. More information can be found here: https://hydeparkinstitute.org/hpi-scholars-in-ethics-and-medicine/

 

Clinical and Health Services Research: Methods and Applications—CCTS 21007/43007
Instructor: Gregory Ruhnke
Time: TBA
Location: Canvas and Zoom

This course will introduce the interdisciplinary field of clinically-oriented health services research with a focus on policy-related implications. We will cover the manner in which science conducted across the translational medicine spectrum informs policy through purveyors of clinical services (e.g. physicians, hospitals), government, insurers, and professional societies. We will use the examples of COVID-19, postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy and autologous bone marrow transplantation to illustrate pitfalls in the adoption into clinical medicine that can complicate the creation of evidence-based practice guidelines, reimbursement policies, and clinical practice. The COVID-19 pandemic will serve to demonstrate the challenges that varied clinical presentations, diagnostic accuracy, and high-fidelity case definition create in the formulation of health statistics (e.g. case-fatality rates and age-specific mortality rates) and defining study populations for clinical research.  Using a highly interactive approach, students will gain experience in selection of research study designs, assessment of health status, measurement issues (e.g. socioeconomic status), risk adjustment, and causal inference.

Selected sessions will focus on:

  • Measuring the risks associated with advanced age and comorbid conditions
  • Hospital information systems
  • Ethical issues surrounding the conduct of clinical investigations
  • Using results for clinical care, quality assessment, and health policy
  • Peer-reviewed journal article publication and critique of literature

 

Global Health Sciences III: Biological And Social Determinants Of Health—CCTS 22003/42003 and BIOS 29814
Instructor: Christopher Olopade, Olufunmilayo Olopade
Time: TBA
Location: Online
Notes: Admission to Paris Global Health Program.

Global health is an interdisciplinary and empirical field, requiring holistic and innovative approaches to navigate an ever-changing environment in the pursuit of health equity. This course will emphasize specific health challenges facing vulnerable populations in low resource settings including in the United States and the large scale social, political, and economic forces that contribute to them through topical events and case studies. Students will study the importance of science and technology, key institutions and stakeholders; environmental impacts on health; ethical considerations in research and interventions; maternal and child health; health and human rights; international legal frameworks and global health diplomacy. Students will gain skills in technical writing as they construct position statements and policy briefs on global health issues of interest. Career opportunities in global health will be explored throughout the course.

Winter 2020

Health Disparities in Breast Cancer—CCTS 20400
Instructor: M. Eileen Dolan, Suzanne D. Conzen
Time: Monday, and Wednesday 3:00-4:20 PM
Location: TBA
Notes: BIOS 25108 is a prerequisite for this course.

Across the globe, breast cancer is the most common women’s cancer. In the last two decades, there have been significant advances in breast cancer detection and treatment that have resulted in improved survival rates. Yet, not all populations have benefited equally from these improvements, and there continues to be a disproportionate burden of breast cancer felt by different populations. In the U.S., for example, white women have the highest incidence of breast cancer but African-American women have the highest breast cancer mortality overall. The socioeconomic, environmental, biological, and cultural factors that collectively contribute to these disparities are being identified with a growing emphasis on health disparities research efforts. In this 10-week discussion-based course students will meet twice weekly and cover major aspects of breast cancer disparities.

 

Machine Learning & Advanced Analytics For Biomedicine—CCTS 20500/40500 and BIOS 29208
Instructor: Ishanu Chattopadhyay
Time: Monday 4:30-7:20 PM
Location: TBA
Notes: Rudimentary knowledge of probability theory, and basic exposure to scripting languages such as python/R is required. This course does not qualify in the Biological Sciences major.

The age of ubiquitous data is rapidly transforming scientific research, and advanced analytics powered by sophisticated learning algorithms is uncovering new insights in complex open problems in biology and biomedicine. The goal of this course is to provide an introductory overview of the key concepts in machine learning, outlining the potential applications in biomedicine. Beginning from basic statistical concepts, we will discuss concepts and implementations of standard and state of the art classification and prediction algorithms, and go on to discuss more advanced topics in unsupervised learning, deep learning architectures, and stochastic time series analysis. We will also cover emerging ideas in data-driven causal inference, and demonstrate applications in uncovering etiological insights from large scale clinical databases of electronic health records, and publicly available sequence and omics datasets. The acquisition of hands-on skills will be emphasized over machine learning theory. On successfully completing the course, students will have acquired enough knowledge of the underlying machinery to intuit and implement solutions to non-trivial data science problems arising in biology and medicine.

 

The Challenges Of The “Good Physician”: Virtue, Wisdom and the Practice of Medicine (Scholars in Ethics and Medicine Cohort)—CCTS 21005/41005
Instructor: John Yoon, Michael Hawking
Time: TBA
Location: TBA
Notes: This is a yearlong course. Students must register for Autumn, Winter, and Spring Quarters to receive 100 units at the end of Spring 2020.

The Scholars in Ethics and Medicine (SEM) program is a yearlong opportunity for a select group of students to collaborate with exemplar physician-scholars and medical ethicists to think through the features required of a good health care clinician. Members of the group collaborate with invited speakers through participation in seminars and small group dinner discussions. Throughout the program, students will think through issues in medical ethics related to the year’s theme will be Virtue, Wisdom, and the Practice of Medicine. The practice of medicine focuses on actions that are intended to promote health and healing, and to do so in ways that are respectful and compassionate. To be aimed at health and to be consistent with our ethical obligations, these actions need to be of a certain kind regarding the ends they pursue and the means they employ. This is to say that these actions need the virtue of practical wisdom, by which we identify the best means to achieve worthwhile ends. How we understand which ends are worthwhile and which means are best will depend on the virtues that guide not only our thoughts and motivations, but also our vision. For virtue influences not only our actions and motivations, but how we see world.  The Scholars in Ethics and Medicine will together explore deep connections between action, vision, wisdom, and virtue as they relate health and healing, in particular how wisdom and virtue are important for seeing patients as whole people, not just bodies to be fixed, in offering compassionate care, among others. More information can be found here: https://hydeparkinstitute.org/hpi-scholars-in-ethics-and-medicine/

 

Global Health Sciences III: Biological And Social Determinants Of Health—CCTS 22003/42003 and BIOS 29814
Instructor: Christopher Olopade, Olufunmilayo Olopade
Time: TBA
Location: TBA
Notes: Admission to Paris Global Health Program.

Global health is an interdisciplinary and empirical field, requiring holistic and innovative approaches to navigate an ever-changing environment in the pursuit of health equity. This course will emphasize specific health challenges facing vulnerable populations in low resource settings including in the United States and the large scale social, political, and economic forces that contribute to them through topical events and case studies. Students will study the importance of science and technology, key institutions and stakeholders; environmental impacts on health; ethical considerations in research and interventions; maternal and child health; health and human rights; international legal frameworks and global health diplomacy. Students will gain skills in technical writing as they construct position statements and policy briefs on global health issues of interest. Career opportunities in global health will be explored throughout the course.

 

Scientists Advancing The Forefront—CCTS 33000
Instructors: Erika Claud, Ronald Cohen
Time: Winter Quarter – Mondays 2:00-3:00 PM; Spring Quarter dates and times are to be determined
Location: BSLC (Room TBA)
Note: To receive 50 credit units, registration in both winter and spring quarters is required. Students should email kbogue@bsd.uchicago.edu to register for the course. All grades in the course are pass/fail and are based on attendance and participation.

In this survey course, leading basic and translational biomedical scientists will review cutting-edge themes that constitute the forefront of medical research. Learners will emerge with a broad understanding of:

  • How these scientific themes relate to human health
  • How scientists develop and apply new knowledge about each theme to improve the human condition
  • The career paths of physician-scientists

All Pritzker School of Medicine MS1 students are eligible to enroll in the course. The course is highly recommended for students interested in the Basic Sciences Scholarship & Discovery Track and required for students interested in applying for the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Research Year Fellowship through the BEST-PREP program.  Non-PSOM students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty may enroll or audit with approval. To register, all prospective students should email Kelsey Bogue at kbogue@bsd.uchicago.edu. 

 

Advanced Community Based Participatory Research (Cbpr) Training Program 1—CCTS 47001
Instructor: Deborah Burnet, Doriane Miller
Time: Friday 12:00-1:00 PM
Location: TBA

The goal of health-related research is to improve the lives of people in the community studied. In traditional research, the community is not actively involved in designing the projects. Community-based participatory research is a partnership approach to research that equitably involves community members, organizational representatives, and academic researchers in all aspects of the research process. The Advanced CBPR Training Program is designed to help meet the growing need and demand for educational resources that help build the knowledge and skills needed to develop and sustain effective CBPR partnerships. The Program consists of six sessions that are offered on various Fridays throughout the year.

 

Introduction To Global Health—CCTS 43000
Instructor: Christine Babcock, Keegan Checkett
Time: Tuesday, Thursday 12:30-1:50 PM
Location: TBA
Notes: Open to advanced Undergraduates and Graduate Students. This course does not meet the requirements of the
Biological Sciences Major.

This course provides an overview of global health from the historical perspective to the current state of global health. The course features weekly guest lecturers with a broad range of expertise in the field: topics include the social and economic determinants of health, the economics of global health, global burden of disease, and globalization of health risks, as well as the importance of ethics, human rights, and diplomacy in promoting a healthier world. The course is designed for graduate-level students and senior undergraduates with an interest in global health work in resource-limited settings.

 

Advanced Community Based Participatory Research (Cbpr) Training Program 2—CCTS 47002
Instructor: Deborah Burnet, Doriane Miller
Time: Tuesday, Thursday 12:00-12:00 AM
Location: TBA
Notes: Registrants who wish to receive 025 credits of course credit must register for CCTS 47001 in the fall and CCTS
47002 in the winter. They must also register online at http://itm.uchicago.edu/education/courses/advanced-cbpr-training/

The goal of health-related research is to improve the lives of people in the community studied. In traditional research, the community is not actively involved in designing the projects. Community-based participatory research is a partnership approach to research that equitably involves community members, organizational representatives, and academic researchers in all aspects of the research process. The Advanced CBPR Training Program is designed to help meet the growing need and demand for educational resources that help build the knowledge and skills needed to develop and sustain effective CBPR partnerships. The Program consists of six sessions that are offered on various Fridays throughout the year.

 

Methods In Health And Biomedical Informatics II—CCTS 47006
Instructor: Samuel Volchenboum
Time: Tuesday, Thursday 12:30-1:50 PM
Location: BHM 214
Notes: Must have taken CCTS 47005 during Fall 2018. See chess.uchicago.edu/CCTS for more information or contact
kbogue@bsd.uchicago.edu for more information.

Most Health and Biomedical Informatics (HBMI) Graduate Programs around the country have independently come to the conclusion that the computational methods that informatics graduate students need to be familiar with is too broad and numerous to be addressed by a series of independent courses. Therefore, most programs have created a set of integrated courses that expose the students to a wide variety of informatics methods in short modules. Typically, these required methods series are organized as a series of required courses taken during the first year of graduate study. This course is the result of discussions by Health and Biomedical Informatics researchers and educators from the Chicago Biomedical Informatics Training (CBIT) initiative. This course is designed as the second course of a year-long sequence and is worth 100 units. Registration for the full year is expected.

Autumn 2019

The Challenges Of The “Good Physician”: Virtue, Wisdom and the Practice of Medicine (Scholars in Ethics and Medicine Cohort)—CCTS 21005/41005
Instructor: John Yoon, Michael Hawking
Time: TBA
Location: TBA
Notes: This is a yearlong course. Students must register for Autumn, Winter, and Spring Quarters to receive 100 units at the end of Spring 2020.

The Scholars in Ethics and Medicine (SEM) program is a yearlong opportunity for a select group of students to collaborate with exemplar physician-scholars and medical ethicists to think through the features required of a good health care clinician. Members of the group collaborate with invited speakers through participation in seminars and small group dinner discussions. Throughout the program, students will think through issues in medical ethics related to the year’s theme will be Virtue, Wisdom, and the Practice of Medicine. The practice of medicine focuses on actions that are intended to promote health and healing, and to do so in ways that are respectful and compassionate. To be aimed at health and to be consistent with our ethical obligations, these actions need to be of a certain kind regarding the ends they pursue and the means they employ. This is to say that these actions need the virtue of practical wisdom, by which we identify the best means to achieve worthwhile ends. How we understand which ends are worthwhile and which means are best will depend on the virtues that guide not only our thoughts and motivations, but also our vision. For virtue influences not only our actions and motivations, but how we see world.  The Scholars in Ethics and Medicine will together explore deep connections between action, vision, wisdom, and virtue as they relate health and healing, in particular how wisdom and virtue are important for seeing patients as whole people, not just bodies to be fixed, in offering compassionate care, among others. More information can be found here: https://hydeparkinstitute.org/hpi-scholars-in-ethics-and-medicine/

 

Health Systems In Low- And Middle-Income Countries—CCTS 21008/41008
Instructor: Veena M Sriram
Time: Tuesday, and Thursday 2:00-3:20 PM
Location: Social Sciences Research Building 401
Notes: Open to graduate and 3rd- and 4th-year undergraduates. 1st- and 2nd-year undergraduates interested in taking the course may write to the course instructor (vsriram@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu) for permission.

Strengthening health systems in low- and middle-income countries is imperative to achieving lasting improvements in health. Recent experiences with viral epidemics, including Ebola, H1N1 and Zika have highlighted the importance of building health systems that are responsive to a variety of health conditions in a timely, effective and inclusive manner. Global health researchers and practitioners have called for integration of programs and interventions with national and subnational health systems, in order to improve coverage and sustainability. Yet, despite the increasing invocation of the term, conceptual and empirical understandings of ‘health systems’ remain ambiguous. This course will help students develop a comprehensive and holistic understanding of health systems in low- and middle-income countries. We will explore the core components of health systems, including service delivery, human resources for health, health financing, supply chain systems, governance, community engagement and information systems. Each class draws upon contemporary case studies from a variety of low- and middle-income countries to illustrate challenges, controversies and opportunities in these contexts. We will systematically unpack the influence of diverse stakeholders, policies and contextual factors, such as colonialism, politics and conflict, on the structure and functioning of health systems. Finally, recognizing the convergence between global and local, we will situate current challenges in the U.S. health system in a global context.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • Analyze and assess the structure and functioning of health systems in low- and middle-income countries by drawing upon key frameworks, concepts and analytic tools
  • Identify and analyze key stakeholders and contextual factors at the local, subnational, national and global level that impact health systems in low- and middle-income countries
  • Design a sample research or intervention proposal to investigate and/or improve health systems in a low-and middle-income country

The course consists of interactive lectures, group work, and assessments that test their understanding of core concepts, including reflections on readings, a midterm paper and a final project built around grant writing.

 

Advanced Clinical Pharmacology I—CCTS 40004
Instructor: Mark Applebaum, Randall Knoebel
Time: Thursday 1:00-2:20 PM
Location: TBA
Notes: Equivalent Intro to Pharm approval. Course starts 10/1.

This course provides an interactive introduction to fundamental principles of the practice of clinical pharmacology relevant to drug development and personalized therapeutics. Topics include: pharmacokinetics, drug metabolism, protein binding, absorption and renal and hepatic elimination, pharmacodynamics, introduction to modeling methods, evaluation of adverse events, and pre-clinical and clinical elements of drug development.

 

Fundamentals Of Quality Improvement And Patient Safety—CCTS 46001
Instructor: Andrew Davis, Laura Botwinick
Time: Tuesday 5:00-6:30 PM
Location: Billings Hospital H300
Note: The class will be held between November 5th and December 17th

Quality Improvement & Patient Safety was designed for faculty and staff at University of Chicago Medicine with the support of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS). The course provides an overview of concepts and methodologies for improving the quality and safety of care. Participants will design quality improvement projects using skills learned in class. In addition, UCMC leaders will speak on key topics throughout the course. Participants will become familiar with tools for improving quality of care and service delivery, such as the Model for Improvement and Lean Performance Improvement. Participants will design an actual quality improvement project and complete a personal improvement project using skills learned in the class. Participants will understand the factors impacting the delivery of safe and high quality care in health care organizations such as teamwork, good communication and organization culture. Participants will understand “Systems Thinking” and other key concepts in patient safety such as Human Factors and Reliability. Participants will understand the key role of QI in today’s health care environment as a mechanism for improving organizational effectiveness and the patient experience. The course is comprised of seven classes total. Faculty, staff, and students/trainees at the University of Chicago Medical Center are welcome to audit the course and should contact Kelsey Bogue at kbogue@bsd.uchicago.edu to register.

 

Advanced Community Based Participatory Research (Cbpr) Training Program 1—CCTS 47001
Instructor: Deborah Burnet, Doriane Miller
Time: Friday 12:00-1:00 PM
Location: TBA

The goal of health-related research is to improve the lives of people in the community studied. In traditional research, the community is not actively involved in designing the projects. Community-based participatory research is a partnership approach to research that equitably involves community members, organizational representatives, and academic researchers in all aspects of the research process. The Advanced CBPR Training Program is designed to help meet the growing need and demand for educational resources that help build the knowledge and skills needed to develop and sustain effective CBPR partnerships. The Program consists of six sessions that are offered on various Fridays throughout the year.

 

Methods In Health And Biomedical Informatics—CCTS 47005
Instructor: Samuel Volchenboum
Time: Thursday 1:30-3:30 PM
Location: TBA
Notes: Send questions about enrollment to kbogue@bsd.uchicago.edu. Course runs from 9/27 to 12/08. Location rotates
between Northwestern’s downtown campus and UIC.

Most Health and Biomedical Informatics (HBMI) Graduate Programs around the country have independently come to the conclusion that the computational methods that informatics graduate students need to be familiar with is too broad and numerous to be addressed by a series of independent courses. Therefore, most programs have created a set of integrated courses that expose the students to a wide variety of informatics methods in short modules. Typically, these required methods series are organized as a series of required courses taken during the first year of graduate study. This course is the result of discussions by Health and Biomedical Informatics researchers and educators from the Chicago Biomedical Informatics Training (CBIT) initiative. This course is designed as the first course of a year-long sequence and is worth 100 units. Registration for the full year is expected.

Summer 2019

Introduction to Biostatistics—PBHS 32100/CCTS 45000
Instructor: John Cursio
Time: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays 3:00-4:30 PM
Location: TBA
This course will provide an introduction to the basic concepts of statistics as applied to the biomedical and public health sciences. Emphasis is on the use of the interpretation of statistical tools for data analysis. Topics include (i) descriptive statistics; (ii) probability and sampling; (iii) the methods of statistical inference; and (iv) an introduction to linear and logistics regression.

Clinical Epidemiology—PBHS 30700/CCTS 45100
Instructors: Brian Chiu and Diane Lauderdale
Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:00-11:00 AM
Location: TBA
Clinical epidemiology is the “application of epidemiologic principles and methods to problems encountered in clinical medicine.” This course introduces the basic principles of epidemiologic study design, analysis and interpretation, with a particular focus on clinical applications. The course includes lectures and discussions based on critical appraisal of significant research articles.

Fundamentals of Health Services Research: Theory, Methods And Applications—CCTS 45200
Instructors: David Meltzer and Marshall Chin
Time: Mondays/Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Thursdays/Fridays, 1:00-2:30 PM
Location: TBA
This course is designed to provide an introduction to the fundamentals of health services research. The basic concepts of health services research will be taught with an emphasis on both their social scientific foundations and the methods needed for their practical application to empirically relevant research. Theoretical foundations will draw on principles from economics, sociology, psychology, and the other social sciences. Methodological topics to be covered will include techniques for data collection and analysis, including outcomes measurement, survey methods, large data set research, population-based study design, community based participatory research, research based in clinical settings, qualitative methods, cost-effectiveness analysis, and tools of economic and sociological analysis. The theoretical and empirical techniques taught will emphasize those relevant to the examination of health care costs, quality, and access. Major applications will include: measurement and improvement of health care quality, analysis of health disparities, analysis of health care technology, and analysis of health care systems and markets. Students prepare a grant proposal as the final assignment for this course. 

Discourse Of Islamic Bioethics—CCTS 41006
Instructors: Aasim Padela
Time: Mondays, 11:30am-1:00 PM
Location: TBA
This course is a mentored and directed reading course that introduces students to critical concepts in Islamic theology and law that undergird normative ethical frameworks within Islam and exposes the student to exemplar works from the wide range of Islamic bioethics literature. The first part of the course will focus on the theoretical aspects of the Islamic moral and ethical tradition and cover scholarly contestations regarding Islamic moral theology as they relate to an Islamic bioethics. The latter half of course will focus on the practical aspects of the emerging field by considering research methods for the field and selected literature reviews of Islamic responses to pressing bioethical issues.

Spring 2019

CCTS 21004
Christian Traditions And Medicine In The Late Modern World

Instructors: John Yoon & Herbert Lin
Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00-3:20 PM
Location: Billings Hospital M214
What is the meaning of medicine in our contemporary world? How has it changed over time, and what are its normative conditions and challenges? What religious and spiritual resources might Christian traditions bring to bear on such questions? This course rests on the assumption that contemporary challenges in medicine stem from a moral pluralism reflecting the cultural conditions of late modernity, as well as from a growing inability to maintain clinical excellence in an increasingly complex and bureaucratic health care system. We will first examine this assumption and its sociological, historical, and theological significance. In parallel, we will engage guest speakers throughout the course who will help us comparatively explore several Christian responses to modernity and to diverse domains of medicine. Lastly, we will critically explore James Hunter’s constructive proposal of “faithful presence,” and what that might mean in the context of medicine. Our goal, ultimately, will be to reflect on the conditions and challenges of modern medicine and to appraise the historical and theological resources that the Christian traditions may offer.

PQ: Completed SOSC Sequence.

CCTS 21007/43007
Clinical and Health Services Research: Methods and Applications
Instructor: Gregory Ruhnke
Time: Mondays and Wednesdays, 5:30-6:50 PM
Location: Billings H300
This course will introduce the interdisciplinary field of clinically-oriented health services research with a focus on policy-related implications. Through exposure to theoretical foundations, methodologies, and applications, students without significant investigative experience will learn about the design and conduct of research studies. We will cover the integration of research within the stages of translational medicine, and how science conducted across the translational medicine spectrum informs policy through purveyors of clinical services (e.g. physicians, hospitals), government, insurers, and professional societies. We will use the examples of postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy and autologous bone marrow transplantation to illustrate pitfalls in the progression from basic science research to clinical trials leading to diffusion in clinical medicine that can complicate the creation of logical, evidence-based practice guidelines, reimbursement, and clinical practice. Using a highly interactive approach, topics will allow students to gain experience in areas pertinent in health services research, including:

  • Assessment of health status
  • Survey research
  • Large-database analyses
  • Measurement issues (e.g. socioeconomic status)
  • Study Designs
  • Causal Inference and Risk adjustment
  • Outcome selection/measurement
  • Common statistical techniques

Selected sessions will focus on:

  • Aging and the elderly as a high-risk population
  • Hospital information systems
  • Ethical issues surrounding the conduct of clinical investigations
  • Using results for clinical care, quality assessment, and health policy
  • Peer-reviewed journal article publication and critique of literature

Please contact the instructor directly at gruhnke@bsd.uchicago.edu with any questions.

CCTS 32411
Mediation, Moderation, And Spillover Effects 

Instructor: Guanglei Hong
Time: Wednesdays from 1:30-4:20 PM, and Fridays from 1:30- 2:50 PM
Location: Rosenwald Hall 329 (Wednesdays), and Walker Museum 303 (Fridays)
This course is designed for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students from social sciences, statistics, public health science, public policy, and social services administration who will be or are currently involved in quantitative research. Questions about why a treatment works, for whom, under what conditions, and whether one individual’s treatment could affect other individuals’ outcomes are often key to the advancement of scientific knowledge. We will clarify the theoretical concepts of mediated effects, moderated effects, and spillover effects under the potential outcomes framework. The course introduces cutting-edge methodological approaches and contrasts them with conventional strategies including multiple regression, path analysis, and structural equation modeling. The course content is organized around application examples. The textbook “Causality in a Social World: Moderation, Mediation, and Spill-Over” (Hong, 2015) will be supplemented with other readings reflecting the latest developments and controversies. Weekly labs will provide tutorials and hands-on experiences. All students are expected to contribute to the knowledge building in class through participation in presentations and discussions. Students are encouraged to form study groups, while the written assignments are to be finished and graded on an individual basis.

PQ: Intermediate Statistics such as STAT 224/ PBHS 324, PP 31301, BUS 41100, or SOC 30005 in addition to Introduction to Causal Inference or their equivalent.

CCTS 38300
Health Economics And Public Policy
Instructor: David Meltzer
Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00-3:20 PM
Location: The Keller Center 1002
This course analyzes the economics of health and medical care in the United States with particular attention to the role of government. The first part of the course examines the demand for health and medical and the structure and the consequences of public and private insurance. The second part of the course examines the supply of medical care, including professional training, specialization and compensation, hospital competition, and finance and the determinants and consequences of technological change in medicine. The course concludes with an examination of recent proposals and initiatives for health care reform.

CCTS 42001
Global Health Sciences III: Topics in Global Health 

Instructors: Christopher Olopade & Olufunmilayo Olopade
Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30- 2:50 PM
Location: TBA
This course will review the major factors that influence the health of individuals and communities worldwide and seek to gain a better understanding of the complexities of global health. Students will study both broad and disease-specific global health challenges (e.g., cancer, diabetes, and cardiopulmonary disease) and strategies for responding to them; key institutions and stakeholders; environmental impacts on health; ethical considerations in research and interventions; maternal and child health; health and human rights; and international legal frameworks within global health diplomacy. The course encompasses lectures, student presentations, and the preparation of a proposal addressing a significant global health problem with major impact.

PQ: To be eligible for this program, students should have completed at least one of the following Biology Fundamentals sequences by Winter 2019: 1) Epidemiology and Population Health; 2) Global Health Infectious Diseases.

CCTS 47007
Methods In Health And Biomedical Informatics III 

Instructor: Samuel Volchenboum
Time: Thursdays, 1:30-3:30 PM
Location: Billings Hospital H300
Most Health and Biomedical Informatics (HBMI) Graduate Programs around the country have independently come to the conclusion that the computational methods that informatics graduate students need to be familiar with are too broad and numerous to be addressed by a series of independent courses. Therefore, most programs have created a set of integrated courses that expose the students to a wide variety of informatics methods in short modules. Typically, these required methods series are organized as a series of required courses taken during the first year of graduate study. This course is the result of discussions by Health and Biomedical Informatics researchers and educators from the Chicago Biomedical Informatics Training (CBIT) initiative. This course is designed as the third course of a year-long sequence and is worth 100 units. Registration for the full year is expected.

PQ: CCTS 47005 during Fall 2018 and 47006 in Winter 2019. Location rotates between Northwestern’s downtown campus, UIC, and UC.