MOREHOUSE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE is dedicated to increasing the educational opportunities of racial/ethnic minorities and/or socio-economically disadvantaged persons underrepresented in medicine who have demonstrated potential for education and training in the medical profession.

The Master of Science (MS) degree program is a broad-based multi-disciplinary graduate level program in clinical research designed to prepare clinical faculty for a career in clinical research. The program provides training in the principles and methods of biostatistics; epidemiology including genetics and clinical trials and outcomes research including health services research and health economics and application of these principles/methods to clinical research.

Upon completion of the MS degree program in clinical research, the student should be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of ethical issues in the field of clinical research including the use of data involving human subjects, and be able to prepare a human consent form for a research protocol
  
• Understand the principles of the design and conduct of clinical trials with attention to protocol preparation, randomization, sample size, trial monitoring, ethical issues, and data analysis. Understand principles of health services research and methods in assessing heath care quality and costs.
  
• Prepare a National Institute of Health proposal including a budget using Public Health Service Form 398.
  
• Design observational and experimental studies, demonstrate understanding of potential sources of bias and confounding and methods of addressing them in the design and execution of studies.
  
• Critically review and summarize the literature on a given topic.
  
• Identify and evaluate demographic, behavioral, social and environmental factors that have an impact on the distribution of disease in populations.
  
• Participate as a team member in identifying clinical research questions and selecting appropriate study designs and methods to address those questions.
  
• Identify and access sources of health and medical data such as vital statistics records, disease registries, national surveys, and ‘medical records, describe how these data are collected and their role in surveillance and disease prevention.
  
• Assist in the design and administration of instruments for collection of epidemiological/medical data for the purposes of surveillance or research.
  
• Give oral presentations and produce written reports on topics relevant to academic medicine. Appreciate the role of genetic factors and their interaction with environmental factors in the etiology and prevention of human disease.
  
• Perform basic statistical tests, recognize the assumptions behind the analysis and interpret the results.
  
• Use computer statistical software packages for data entry, database management, data summary, data analysis and display research results.
  
• Generate descriptive statistics and graphics to summarize and display clinical data.
  
• Analyze epidemiologic/clinical data using basic statistical tests and measures of association.