LI Course
CE Hours: 6 contact hours

Partnership: JoLynn P. Montgomery, PhD, MPH represents the Epidemiology Section.

Statement of Purpose and Institute Overview: The purpose of this Institute is to examine how public health stakeholders and policymakers can select appropriate data sources, use data responsibly, and represent important public health issues in a data-driven way. This course will focus on the important role of health-related data in formulating effective public health policy in the context of a political society. At the same time, the interplay of politics, public health and health research will be highlighted. Participants will be introduced to basic epidemiological methods and how to interpret them. Health-related study designs will be explained. Participants will explore sources of data for making health–related decisions and practice using them to create policy-relevant communications. Examples of how health research data is interpreted within a political context are provided. Issues faced by practitioners in addressing sources of health data issues are examined. This is a hands-on workshop, so come prepared for participation and lively discussion! We will work through real and specific examples and you will leave with practice materials.

Session Objectives: At the end of this course, you will be able to: • Describe the importance of providing a scientific and data-driven foundation in policy making and goal-setting • Define basic epidemiological methods, including incidence, prevalence, odds ratio and relative risk, for interpreting data • Assess epidemiologic methods for policy-related decision making • Recognize appropriate and reliable sources of public health scientific and data information • Identify strengths & weaknesses of data and their sources • Interpret health-related data in a policy or political context • Discuss strengths and weaknesses of various study designs used for collecting health-related data • Explain how to translate data into usable information • Compose easy-to-understand research-based position statement suitable for the media and other public health stakeholders

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing