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Master of Public Health – Clinical Effectiveness

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Summary

The Master of Public Health in Clinical Effectiveness provides students with the skills required to identify the most appropriate, ethical, and cost-effective means of providing health care through prevention, early detection, and treatment.

The MPH in Clinical Effectiveness can be completed as either an academic year or summer-focused program. Limited to clinicians who enroll initially in the Program in Clinical Effectiveness.

About

The MPH in Clinical Effectiveness provides students with the analytical and quantitative training necessary to evaluate the impact of clinical practices, decisions, and interventions as well as the breadth of knowledge they need to work effectively across many disciplines and fields of inquiry.

Students who choose Clinical Effectiveness as their specialized field of study are interested in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics, cost-effectiveness analysis, medical decision analysis, health services research, quality improvement in health care, and measurement of health-related quality of life.

Along with a broad perspective on public health, this training gives graduates the skills to analyze the health policy implications and population health benefits of clinical investigations.

The program prepares students for clinical research responsibilities and for leadership roles in evaluating and improving all aspects of health care delivery. Most graduates hold positions in academic medicine.

Academic Year Option: On Campus (Summer or Fall start) • Full-time (1 year) • Part-time (2 years)

Summer-focused option: On Campus (Summer start) • Full-time (2-3 summers)

Curriculum

MPH core requirements:

ID 100: Foundations for Public Health
BST 206: Introductory Statistics for Medical Research
BST 207: Statistics for Medical Research II
EPI 208: Introduction to Clinical Epidemiology
MPH 101: Qualitative Methods for Public Health
MPH 102: Health Systems
MPH 103: Leadership and Communication
MPH 104: Social, Behavioral, and Structural Determinants of Health
MPH 105: Public Health Policy and Politics

Applied practice experience and integrative learning experience:

EPI 946: Applied Practice Experience and Integrative Learning Experience for CLE Academic Year
EPI 947: Applied Practice Experience and Integrative Learning Experience for CLE Summer-Focused

Field of study requirements:

Regression course
5 credits of courses beyond the introductory level that provide students with analytic and/or quantitative skills for evaluating clinical/public health issues (required for academic year CLE; highly recommended for summer-focused CLE)

For academic year CLE:

BST 223: Applied Survival Analysis
BST 226: Applied Longitudinal Analysis
EPI 235: Epidemiologic Methods in Health Services Research
RDS 280: Decision Analysis for Health and Medical Practices

For summer-focused CLE:

BST 224: Survival Methods in Clinical Research
EPI 253: Effectiveness Research with Longitudinal Health Care Databases
HPM 299: Research with Large Databases
RDS 286: Decision Analysis in Clinical Research

Competencies

Critically evaluate and apply principles of epidemiologic methods, including exposure and outcome measures, measures of association, bias and confounding, and study design options
Demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate and apply appropriate biostatistical techniques for data arising from evaluation of public health problems (e.g., including basic probability theory and common distributions, effect measure estimation, continuous and categorical data analysis, parametric and non-parametric hypothesis tests, confidence intervals and p-values, correlation and basic regression techniques, and power/sample size calculations)
Conduct and interpret results from regression analyses used to examine the effectiveness of clinical decisions and interventions
Formulate a clinical research question and develop a proposal for a study to address this question
Summarize and critically evaluate the methods and results of studies designed to examine the effectiveness of clinical decisions and interventions

Our Community

Committed, Accomplished, Collaborative

As a Harvard Chan MPH student, you will work in a collaborative classroom environment alongside talented students from around the world and from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds. You will take advantage of the extraordinary resources of Harvard University and Boston’s Longwood Medical Area—home to Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and other world-class health facilities. You will meet global leaders and work with world-renowned faculty members. And when you graduate, you will benefit from Harvard’s unparalleled global network of alumni leaders.

Just as important as learning advanced clinical research skills, the MPH-CLE program has introduced me to new subjects, such as qualitative research and implementation science, which I am now incorporating into my ongoing research. I am a more capable and well-rounded investigator because of this program.
Kendra Wulczyn, MPH ’24

Career Outcomes

An MPH degree opens an extraordinary number of pathways to a meaningful career. Graduates of the MPH program are trained to pursue careers in a variety of industries:

Academic medicine
Biotech/pharma
Consulting
Government
Health care management
Hospital/health care delivery
Non-profit/Non-government organizations
Private practice
Private sector institutions
Public health agencies
University/research

Eligibility Criteria

The MPH in Clinical Effectiveness is aimed primarily at physicians who have completed their residency and have the support of their home hospital or university and have completed the Program in Clinical Effectiveness.

Application Requirements

All applications must be submitted through SOPHAS – the centralized application service for public health programs. In addition to the application, applicants must submit:

Statement of purpose and objectives
Standardized test scores (optional with guidance)
Three letters of reference
Resumé/curriculum vitae
Post-secondary transcripts or mark sheets (World Education Services credential evaluation for applicants with degrees from outside of the United States)
English language proficiency (TOEFL/IELTS/Duolingo English Test), if applicable

Application Deadline: December 1

Applicants may apply to only one degree program for either full- or part-time status. Applications are reviewed in their entirety and decisions are released via email in late February/early March. Decisions are not released until all application components are received.