“Pharmacoepidemiology is vital to understanding the safety and effectiveness of medication use in real-world populations — especially in addressing adverse drug events, drug-drug interactions, and the growing challenges of polypharmacy. By applying rigorous population-based methods, we can inform prescribing (and de-prescribing), safer dispensing practices, and improve the safe and effective use of medicines. This program provides students, researchers, and professionals across public health, pharmacy, medicine, and the pharmaceutical industry with the tools to evaluate drug safety, generate actionable evidence, and contribute to more informed medication use policies.”
The MS program in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety prepares graduates with the knowledge and skills to improve the safe, effective, and equitable use of medications through rigorous research and informed policy and advocacy.
With the growing availability of large medical and pharmacy databases and real-world evidence, pharmacoepidemiology – a scientific discipline that uses epidemiological methods to evaluate the use, benefits and risks of medicines and medical products and interventions in large populations – has become crucial to public health, clinical and regulatory decision-making.
The program is designed to provide specialized training in identifying, measuring, and addressing critical issues related to drug safety, effectiveness and utilization in the context of pharmaceutical policy and regulations. The program equips learners to improve health outcomes and advance equitable access and safe use of medicines for both patients and populations.
Students will have access to large data assets, including pharmacy claims, rigorous training and symposium participation, seminar participation to share current research projects.
With a distinguished faculty and access to cutting-edge data assets and resources, including Medicare Part-D claims, SEER-Medicare, IQVIA LRx, and pharmacy access and availability longitudinal data, this program offers robust academic training emphasizing real-world analyses and applications that can inform policymakers, public health and regulatory agencies, and clinical practice. Graduates will emerge prepared to lead in diverse environments, from academic and regulatory settings to industry and healthcare practice. Join us to be part of the future of healthcare innovation, where your expertise will contribute to shaping medication safety and effectiveness, ultimately driving health equity in the U.S. and globally.
Educational Objectives
Upon successful completion of the core courses required for the MS in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety program, students will be able to:
- Apply principles of pharmacoepidemiology necessary for conducting and interpreting pharmacoepidemiologic studies, including drug utilization and pharmaceutical policy research.
- Understand the role of pharmacoepidemiology in pharmacovigilance and the post-marking evaluation of drug safety after they have been released onto the market, including strategies to mitigate risk.
- Critically evaluate investigations on the safety and effectiveness of medications and explain their strengths and weaknesses.
- Understand research methods, data sources and study designs, and analytic techniques to address confounding and bias, often employed in pharmacoepidemiologic research.
- Participate in study design and analyses to assess the effectiveness and post-marketing surveillance of drug safety, including monitoring adverse drug events, and contextualize the safety of standard of care treatments for new drugs in development
- Increase awareness and understanding of novel applications of pharmacoepidemiology in health disparities research, including equitable access and safe use of essential medicines in the U.S. and globally.
Courses
Accordion Content
- CXPT 500 – Critical Perspectives on Medicines, Health and Society (3 units)
- CXPT 594a – Master’s Thesis (2 units)
- CXPT 594b – Master’s Thesis (2 units)
- CXPT 594c – Master’s Thesis (0 units)
- PHRD 550 – Pharmacoepidemiology (3 units)
- PM 510 – Principles of Biostatistics (4 units)
- PM 512 – Principles of Epidemiology (4 units)
- RXRS 422 – Regulation, Guidance and Control of Medical Products (2 units)
- CXPT 650 – Advanced Pharmacoepidemiology Methods (4 units)
- PM 566 – Introduction to Health Data Science (4 units)
- PM 508 – Health Service Delivery in the U.S. (4 units)
- PM 511a – Data Analysis (4 units)
- PM 511b – Data Analysis (4 units)
- PM 511c – Data Analysis (4 units)
- PM 518a – Statistical Methods for Epidemiological Studies I, II (3 units)
- PM 518b – Statistical Methods for Epidemiological Studies I, II (3 units)
- PM 581 – Quality and Inequality in Health Care: Examination of Health Services (4 units)
- PM 587 – Qualitative Research Methods in Public Health (4 units)
- PMEP 547 – Programming Methods for Empirical Analysis of Health Data (4 units)
- RXRS 407 – The Discovery, Development and Marketing of Medicines (4 units)
- RXRS 412 – Ethics, Drugs and Society (4 units)
- SOCI 360 – Social Inequality: Class, Status and Power (4 units)
- SOCI 475 – Medical Sociology (4 units)
- SSCI 381 – Statistics for the Spatial Sciences (4 units)
- SSCI 382 – Geographic Information Science: Spatial Analytics (4 units)
- SSCI 581 – Concepts for Spatial Thinking (4 units)
Admissions Requirements
- A bachelor’s degree in a related field, including public health, economics, sociology, pharmacy and regulatory sciences.
- GPA required: 3.0 or above (on a 4.0 scale)
- Three letters of recommendation
- Personal statement describing: research and professional experience; and career objectives and research interests
- English language proficiency for international students: a minimum of 90-100 for TOEFL iBT; 6.5-7.0 for IELTS.
