About the Program

As part of the SUNY Stony Brook Graduate School, the graduate program in Population Health and Clinical Outcomes Research [PHCOR] provides a multidisciplinary, integrated, applied problem-solving approach to support students in addressing the important issues within the field. The purpose of this small and highly specialized graduate degree program is to train population health and clinical outcomes researchers, academicians, and practitioners–who will advance the field on a local, regional and national level.

It has been recognized that there is a critical need for well trained people with the skills of population health and clinical outcome research. For example the new health care legislation places great emphasis on population based approaches to the obesity epidemic and clinical outcomes approaches to establishing comparative efficacy of treatments. We believe that these skills will be in great demand in the public, private and academic sectors. By uniquely placing a focus on human subject studies and trials, in combination with best practices in clinical care and community interventions, the PHCOR program will extend knowledge in the areas of safety, quality, efficiency, accessibility, accountability, and equity of care by supporting opportunities for development of new knowledge about health and disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.

Students will gain knowledge, skills, and experience by means of a series of a rigorous quantitative and analytical courses designed to develop advanced problem-solving skills. Working under faculty mentor guidance, student projects will focus on substantive current health care problems affecting population health, health policy, clinical practice, and patient-based health care decisions. Graduates will be competent in the design, conduct, and evaluation of research studies that will improve the future public health and medical care provided.

Preparation for a research career will includes publishing in peer reviewed journals and writing proposals to obtain research project funding. The PhD program consists of two years of course work, followed by the Preliminary Examination and independent research leading to the dissertation. Following the submission of two manuscripts, a dissertation defense may be scheduled. Students are expected to work with faculty to develop their own independent research projects, which will go beyond the boundaries of existing faculty research.

The goals of the program are to provide graduate students with a rigorous, innovative, mentored, learning experience with the following competency goals:

• Identification of the determinants of health and factors associated with disease prevention.
  
  
• Assessment the health care needs of populations as related to their environment.
  
  
• Understanding of the context for population health and clinical science research questions, as well as the organization, politics, and financing of the health care system
  
  
• Appraisal of the performance of the health system in terms of access to care, safety, quality of care, resource consumption, cost-effectiveness, and accountability.
  
  
• Conduct of independent studies of the health care system (evaluating determinants of access, quality, health outcomes, resource consumption, and cost-effectiveness) using state of the art research methods.
  
  
• Commitment to conduct population health and clinical research for human subjects both ethically and responsibly.
  
  
• Design and implementation for a mentored student research project experience including an in-depth focus on scientific writing and professional presentations (e.g., requiring manuscripts, presentations, and grant submissions).
  
  
• Career development by providing experiential opportunities to teach and present research findings.