Applied Epidemiology Concentration
Our program, offered on-campus and online, you’ll learn to apply epidemiologic tools and frameworks to describe patterns of disease and other public health issues affecting diverse populations. By clarifying problems, you’ll drive effective solutions.
What you'll learn
The Master of Public Health (MPH) concentration in Applied Epidemiology, hosted by the Gillings School’s nationally top-ranked Department of Epidemiology, will prepare you to identify and respond to emerging public health threats.
During the program, students will learn how to:
- Understand surveillance systems and how they can be applied to a disease or condition of public health importance using evolving technologies and data linkages.
- Recommend and implement the appropriate study design and understand: a) What to measure to track disease, specific disease indicators and possible causal factors (i.e. to determine if X causes Y); b) How to measure it, including recommending strategies of data collection; and c) In what groups of people.
- Accelerate the development and implementation of evidence-based solutions to pressing health problems in your area(s) of interest.
- Advance a holistic understanding of current and emerging public health challenges with a unique focus on prevention, quality and effectiveness.
- Collaborate across disciplines and professions to improve the health of communities and populations as well as individual patients.
- Critically evaluate the relevant body of epidemiologic literature.
- Illustrate how surveillance systems can be applied to a disease or condition of public health importance.
- Assess specific epidemiologic study designs - including appropriate study populations, strategies of data collection - to investigate etiologic relationships between the exposure and outcome.
- Develop data collection tools with consideration of ethical and privacy considerations, data security, and quality control.
Appraise data sources and linkages to address a public health issue, with consideration of ethical and privacy considerations, data security, and quality control.
- Conduct and interpret data analyses of epidemiologic data, including datasets made available by governmental or other organizations, to address research questions, taking account of data quality, and systematic error.
- Communicate epidemiologic concepts and findings to lay and professional audiences.
Required courses and sample plan of study
In addition to the interdisciplinary, 14-credit Gillings MPH Core, you will take six concentration-specific courses on topics such as epidemiologic data analysis and data in public health.
EPID 710: Fundamentals of Epidemiology
EPID 716: Epidemiologic Data Analysis
EPID 750: Fundamentals of Public Health Surveillance
EPID 759: Methods in Field Epidemiology
EPID 795: Data in Public Health
EPID 992: Capstone (Culminating Experience)
Fall 2023 Cohort Applied Epidemiology Degree Requirements and Study Plan (PDF)
Fall 2024 Cohort Applied Epidemiology Degree Requirements and Study Plan (PDF)
Chantel Martin, PhD
The Gillings Health Equity Faculty Research Award recognizes excellence in research by faculty in the Gillings School that advances solutions to health inequities. This award is co-sponsored by the school’s Research, Innovation and Global Solutions and Inclusive Excellence units. As an emerging national leader in research to understand how structural factors and social stressors in the United States become biologically embodied to impact health outcomes among racially and ethnically minoritized groups and produce health inequities, Martin is the ideal recipient of the award. Martin’s interdisciplinary research is innovative and cutting edge.
Career Opportunities
99% of Gillings graduates have a job or continue their education within one year of graduating.
Applied epidemiology has far-reaching implications for the field of public health. It can be used to:
- Define and prioritize public health practice and policy;
- Investigate and quickly respond to outbreaks, including identifying harmful pathogens or the factors contributing to disease;
- Build capacity for effectively implementing risk assessments and surveillance;
- Guide interventions to improve population health;
- Inform medicine and pharmacy (e.g., track toxicities; inform precision medicine based on genetics; evaluate drug efficacy);
- Evaluate programs and policies (e.g, HIV prevention among school girls in South Africa; bed nets to prevent malaria in infants); and
- Identify and study the determinants of disease (e.g., biological, behavioral, social, cultural, economic and political factors that directly or indirectly influence health).
Students fund their education through a combination of sources, including loans, fellowships and awards, assistantships and grants. Several awards and scholarships are supported by generous contributions to the School and University who value the current and future contributions of our students.
Contact: Sarah Kitchens, Funding and Awards Coordinator, sarah_kitchens@unc.edu
Looking for more flexibility?
Explore the online version of our Applied Epidemiology concentration by filling out the form below.
