Certificate Requirements

ACTR scholars must successfully complete 13 graduate level credit units of coursework to receive the ACTR certificate of completion. All coursework is offered through the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and upon completion of the program credits may be eligible to be transferred towards a MPH, MS, or PhD degree within the College as well as the MS and PhD degrees in Clinical and Translational Science offered through the College of Medicine.

Coursework

Required Units: 13	Certificate Course	Units	Term Offered Online	Term Offered On-Campus
Required Courses: 7 units	EPID 573A Basic Principles of Epidemiology BIOS 576A Biostatistics for Public Health EPID 696T Clinical & Translational Research Seminar	3 3 1	Fall & Spring Spring Fall	Fall Fall Fall
Required Selectives: 3 to 6 units	BIOS 576B Biostatistics for Research BIOS 576D Data Management & SAS Programming EPID 678 Principles of Public Health & Health Informatics	3 3 3	Spring N/A Sp (Even yrs)	Spring Fall Sp (Even yrs)
Electives: 0 to 3 units	BIOS 503 Intro to Statistical Analysis using STATA BIOS 504 Intro to Statistical Analysis using SAS EPID 573B Epidemiologic Methods EPI 573C Advanced Epidemiology HPS 652 Grantsmanship for a Winning Proposal EPID 696A Epidemiology Seminar BIOS 696S Biostatistics Seminar	1 1 3 3 3 1 1	Fall & Spring Fall & Spring N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A	N/A N/A Spring Fall Spring Fall & Spring Fall & Spring

Time Commitment

The ACTR graduate certificate was developed to meet the needs of busy health professionals, and all courses can be completed through online or in-person classroom settings. In addition, the graduate certificate is tailored to meet the individual needs of the ACTR scholars, allowing the 13 required credits to be completed in one year to two years.

Course Descriptions

Three Core Courses:

Basic Principles of Epidemiology (EPID 573A), 3 credits
This is an introduction course on basic concepts, principles and methods of epidemiology and how these concepts and methods are applicable in epidemiologic and clinical and translational research. No prerequisite.

Biostatistics in Public Health (BIOS 576A), 3 credits
This course introduces biostatistical methods and applications, and will cover descriptive statistics, probability theory, and a wide variety of inferential statistical techniques that can be used to make practical conclusions about empirical data. Students will also be learning to use a statistical software package (STATA). Prerequisite: one year of college-level mathematics.

Clinical and Translational Research Seminar (EPID 696T), 1 credit
A seminar course which consists of presentations & discussions given by diverse speakers on clinical and translational research that may not be available through other courses.  Presentation topics may cover research methodologies, research ethics, health disparity, aging, pediatric health, mentoring, and practical issues of a research career such as finding funding, consulting, career development, and issues in study management. This is also the forum in which graduate students from the field related to clinical and translational research may present their research design and finding.

Selectives (Choose a minimum of 3 units; maximum of 6 units may apply to certificate requirements)

Biostatistics for Research, BIOS 576B (3): This course teaches descriptive statistics and statistical inference relevant to biomedical research, including data analysis, regression and correlation analysis, analysis of variance, survival analysis, biological assay, statistical methods for epidemiology and statistical evaluation of clinical literature. Prerequisites: BIOS 576A, EPID 573A.

Data Management & SAS Programming, BIOS 576D (3): This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of data management using the SAS programming language. Emphasis will be placed on data manipulation, including reading, processing, recoding, and reformatting data. The approach will be to teach by example, with an emphasis on hands-on learning.

Principles of Public Health Informatics, EPID 678 (3): An introductory course to public health informatics including domains of public health data sources and their applications in clinical and public health research. Prerequisites: BIOS 576A, EPID 573A.

Electives (Choose 0 – 3 units to reach minimum certificate requirement of 13 units total)

Introduction to Statistical Analysis Using STATA, BIOS 503 (1): This course provides an introduction to statistical analysis using the STATA software package.  It will introduce methods for entering, modifying and managing data, and provide examples of commonly used statistical analyses.

Introduction to Statistical Analysis Using SAS, BIOS 504 (1): This course provides an introduction to statistical analysis using the SAS software package.  It will introduce methods for entering, modifying and managing data, and provide examples of commonly used statistical analysis.

Epidemiologic Methods, EPID 573b (3): Essential concepts, principles, and theories of research design and data analysis in epidemiologic and clinical investigation. Prerequisites: BIOS 576A, EPID 573A.

Advanced Epidemiology, EPID 573c (3): An advanced course in quantitative issues that arise in the planning, analysis, and interpretation of epidemiologic research studies. Students must also know how to use a statistical software package (eg. STATA).

Grantsmanship for a Winning Proposal, HPS 652 (3): The course will present principles and skills needed to write competitive public health research grants, prepare budgets, and understand the peer review process. Students will write an NIH R01 type grant proposal that will undergo internal review.

Clinical Trials and Interventions Trials, BIOS 675 (3): A fundamentals course on issues in the design, operation and analysis of controlled clinical trials and intervention studies. Emphasis on randomized long-term multicenter trials.

Epidemiology Seminar, EPID 696A (1): This is a seminar course which consists of presentations given by diverse speakers on a range of topics that may not be available through other courses. Topics may include research methodologies; research ethics; mentoring; epidemiology and the law; the results of research and issues in specific areas such as injury epidemiology, TB control, medical genetics, and infectious diseases; and practical issues of a research career such as finding funding, consulting, career development, and issues in study management. This is also the forum in which MS and PhD epidemiology students will present their results.

Biostatistics Seminar, BIOS 696S (1): This is a graduate-level seminar consisting of presentations by diverse speakers on a range of topics in biostatistics and in public health. This is also a forum in which biostatistics students will give presentations.

Other possible elective courses can be found using the following link:  

http://publichealth.arizona.edu/students/course-schedule

Elective courses not on the above list must first be approved by the Chair of the ACTR Certificate program.