M.Sc. Advanced Epidemiology in Clinical and Genetic Research (MADE)
Erasmus University Rotterdam
| Application deadline: | March 31 |
| Tuition fee: |
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| Start date: | August 2013 |
| Credits: | 60 ECTS |
| Duration full-time: | 12 months |
| Partnership: | Joint |
| Languages: |
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| Location: |
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| Delivery mode: | On Campus |
| Educational variant: | Full-time |
Description
The MADE programme is a Masters programme for students who already have a Masters degree in Medicine, Biology, Biochemistry, Pharmacy, Nutrition, Health Sciences and allied sciences.
The programme is offered by four universities:
- Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Germany
- Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy
- Universität Bern, Switzerland.
Advanced Epidemiology
The new MADE programme combines the perspectives of clinical epidemiology and genetic epidemiology into one Masters programme. Combining these perspectives is increasingly recognised internationally as an essential element of advanced epidemiology, and it is a new approach for the participating universities. They find that there is a need for graduated students who are able to combine clinical research with genetic expertise and vice versa.
Aims and objectives
The general aim of MADE is that medical doctors and other health care professionals can deepen their knowledge of both clinical and genetic epidemiology, improve their scientific medical skills and develop themselves personally which will eventually enable them to shape the future of medical research in a rapidly changing clinical and genetic environment.
The intended learning outcomes of the Master programme are derived from requirements set by the scientific discipline, the international scientific practice and the practice in the epidemiological field. MADE uses the following criteria (intended learning outcomes to define a successful student:
Knowledge and understanding
After completion of the Masters programme, the student will be able to:
- Use and understand when to use methods for the frequencies of disease and measures of effect.
- Critically discuss study design and methodological issues in an epidemiological and clinical context. The student understands the strengths and weaknesses of the different study methods and the accompanying study designs and analyses methods.
- Read, interpret and use statistical terms and techniques, such as the different distributions, confidence intervals, and multivariate (regression) analysis.
- Discuss the role of genes in disease, focusing particularly on familial and hereditary factors in the origin and expression of human disease. The student has knowledge about statistical approaches as well as about molecular techniques used in genetic epidemiologic research. Furthermore, they can interpret and discuss diagnostic, prognostic, preventive and therapeutic studies that follow directly from quantitative study designs.
- Critically appraise the level of evidence of scientific literature in the field of clinical and genetic epidemiology. The student can analyse, assess and deal with complex phenomena, issues and situations, even when limited information is available.
Applying knowledge and understanding
- After completion of the Masters programme, the student will be able to:
- Formulate a genetic and/or clinical problem and translate it into a scientific question.
- Solve genetic and clinical epidemiological problems in new or unfamiliar environments within a multidisciplinary context.
- Perform an extensive study of the literature concerning the clinical, genetic or clinical and genetic research subject.
- Integrate knowledge and handle complexity, and formulate judgements with incomplete data.
- Critically, independently and creatively perform clinical and genetic epidemiology research, collect and analyse data and draw conclusions within specified time limits. This culminates in a masters thesis including a description of the objective(s) of the investigation, a summary of the literature, materials used, methods applied, results obtained, discussion and the conclusion of the research. The Masters thesis qualifies to be published in an international peer-reviewed journal.
Making judgements
After completion of the Masters programme, the student will be able to:
- Make assessments in advanced epidemiology, taking into account relevant scientific, social and ethical aspects. The student has an awareness of ethical aspects of research and development work, its role in society and human responsibility for its application.
Communication
After completion of the Masters programme, the student will be able to:
- Communicate their conclusions and the underpinning knowledge and rationale to peers and lay people.
- Integrate and collaborate with others within and outside their multidisciplinary research group.
- Write an article, which qualifies to be published in an international peer-reviewed journal.
Learning skills
After completion of the Masters programme, the student will be able to:
- Participate in research and development work or work independently in other advanced, multidisciplinary contexts.
- Identify their need of further knowledge and take responsibility for developing their own learning, as shown by the choice of electives.
Career opportunities
Medicine, academic research, industry and health policy.
The Masters programme provides an excellent preparation for a PhD research project. MADE alumni will be able to fully integrate clinical and genetic aspects of epidemiology in their clinical work as well as in their research. They will start or continue their professional career as a scientist, perhaps combined with a clinical career, or in a pharmaceutical, food or medical appliance company, at a ministry of health, university, university hospital, research institute or advisory organisation.
Contents
MADE consists of a theoretical semester in a modular format and a research training semester.
The theoretical semester
The theoretical semester starts at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. Courses include study design and data analysis, lectures on principles and methods of applied quantitative research in medicine and healthcare. Key topics are biostatistics, clinical research, epidemiology, human genetics, and health services and public health research.
Courses
Erasmus MC
- Principles of Research in Medicine and Epidemiology
- Genome Wide Association Analysis
- Principles of Genetic Epidemiology
- Topics in Meta-Analysis
- Health Economics
- Genomics in Molecular Medicine
- Advances in Epidemiologic Study Design
- Study Design
- Classical Methods for Data-analysis
In mid-October the courses continue at either LMU Munich or Erasmus MC. Both universities offer integrated and advanced courses that match one of the key objectives of MADE: the opportunity to integrate genetic, cellular and clinical perspectives. Students will take courses in clinical epidemiology, genetic epidemiology and advanced epidemiology, combining clinical and genetic epidemiology.
Courses and modules
Erasmus MC
- Clinical Epidemiology
- Genetic-epidemiologic Research Methods
- Advanced Genetic Analyses Module
- Epidemiology Module
- Erasmus Winter Programme Module
- Advanced Clinical and Genetic Epidemiology
LMU Munich
- Advanced Genetic Epidemiology I Module
- Advanced Genetic Epidemiology II Module
- Medical Informatics and Regulatory Issues in Clinical Research Module
- Advanced Clinical Epidemiology Module
- Advanced Clinical and Genetic Epidemiology
The research training semester
The second semester, starting at the beginning of February, includes the research training and the elective courses. The research training can be taken at each of the four universities, however not at the university where the student spend the previous three months (Erasmus MC or LMU Munich).
Research training involves designing and implementing a research project under the guidance and supervision of a personal tutor. A key strength of this consortium is that it offers research topics in clinical epidemiology, molecular/genetic epidemiology and the integration of both. The research areas includes major neurological and cardiovascular diseases, endocrinological determinants of diseases, paediatric studies, inflammation and immunology, environmental interactions, cancer epidemiology, chronic disease epidemiology, evidence synthesis, biostatistics and biomarkers, HIV, and musculoskeletal health. Students can participate in research on world-renowned large cohort studies, such as the Rotterdam Study and Generation R study (Erasmus MC), the children cohorts (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität), the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology (INHANCE) (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore), the Somerset and Avon Survey of Health, the Leicester cohorts and the Swiss HIV Cohort Study (all three datasets are managed by the Universität Bern).
A tutor will guide the student during the research training period, which will start with the student locating and reading relevant literature for his or hers research topic. The student may need to narrow the topic of the Masters thesis down to a certain, specified research question. The data to answer the research question is already collected, as MADE students will always be working on an operational data set. Although Masters theses may also be of a more theoretical or methodological nature. With help of the tutor, the student will write and execute a data plan. This plan contains the analyses needed to answer the research question. After the data analyses, the results and their implications will be discussed with the tutor. The student will write a scientific paper, which will include introduction, methods, results and a discussion. During the research training, students are a part of the research group. They will attend research meetings, where data, results, papers and methods are discussed.
Successful completion of this training phase, the Masters thesis, leads to a paper that is suitable for submission to an international peer-reviewed journal.
Elective courses
During the research training, students are encouraged to select elective courses that match their research work. Elective courses are advanced specialised courses that can be taken at each of the four universities. They are designed to either deepen students insights into their research subject or broaden their understanding of clinical and genetic epidemiology, public health impact and policy. The elective courses taken have to add up to a minimum of one ECTS credit and a maximum of five credits.
The students are urged to choose electives at other sites than their research location, to ensure even broader academic development. Elective courses include Cancer Epidemiology (Erasmus MC), Family Based Genetic Analyses (Erasmus MC), Advanced Event Data Analysis (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität), Medical Systems Biology (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität), Ethical and sociocultural issues in Health Technology Assessment & Management and dissemination (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) and Ensuring Data Quality and Advanced Methods in Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (Universität Bern).
Requirements
In order to qualify for the MADE programme, a prospective student should have earned a second-cycle degree (a Master of Science degree or equivalent in Medicine, Biology, Biochemistry, Pharmacy, Nutrition, Health Sciences or an allied discipline). The degree must have been awarded by an accredited university that is legally entitled to issue it. The prospective student should also meet a recognised level of English proficiency:
- The minimum IELTS (International English Testing System) score is 6.5 (minimum score subsection: 6.0)
- The minimum TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) scores are 575 for the paper-based test (minimum score subsection: 57); 232 for the computer-based test (minimum score subsection: 23); and 90 for the internet-based test (minimum score subsection: 22).
NB: An English proficiency test is not required for candidates who can prove on the basis of written, official certificates that English was their language of instruction at secondary school and university.
To be eligible for the Masters programme, students should meet each of the following criteria (where necessary, the relative weighting is indicated):
Questions regarding the quality of their academic achievements, which include:
- the total duration of their university education
- the quality of the university and faculty they graduated from and the number of degrees they obtained
- the references provided by the universities they graduated from regarding their academic qualifications
- their academic performance (especially their grade in the Masters thesis)
- their previous research and work experience
Questions regarding their motivation, which include:
- the quality of their motivation letter
- their research-oriented motivation
- the quality of their reference letters
- the relevance of their previous studies to the objectives of the Masters Programme
The quality of their academic achievements is weighted with 50%, the motivation and the reference letters with 30% and the relevance of previous studies with 20%.
It is important that prospective MADE students have a clear personal standpoint on their future role in research. They should be able to formulate their views on Advanced Epidemiology, and also their interest in it.
English Language Requirements
| IELTS band: | 6.5 |
| CAE score: | 75(Grade B) |
| TOEFL paper-based test score: | 575 |
| TOEFL computer-based test score: | 232 |
| TOEFL internet-based test score: | 90 |
You are normally required to take an English Proficiency Test if you come from a non-English speaking country.
Most European Universities recognise the IELTS test.
More information on IELTSContact
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