The Graduate Program in Clinical Science leads to the Ph.D. or M.S. degree and is administered through the Population Health Sciences Program. This multi-disciplinary area of study provides health care professionals with the didactic and experiential education required for the pursuit of academic or practical careers in health and medicine with an emphasis on studies in humans as individual study subjects or as populations. Physicians and other health care professionals who complete this training are positioned to become future leaders in academic medicine and clinical research. They are qualified for faculty positions as well as for other research positions such as in industry.
The Program may interest a variety of individuals who wish to pursue advanced training in clinical research, including junior-faculty, senior research fellows, clinical fellows and medical students in a combined degree program (M.D.-Ph.D., or M.D.-M.S.). Graduates are positioned to become future leaders in academic medicine and clinical/translational research.
Approved curricular tracks within the Clinical Science Graduate Program include:
- Clinical Investigation (M.S., Ph.D.)
- Health Services Research (M.S., Ph.D.)
- Health Informatics (M.S., Ph.D.)
The Clinical Investigation curricular track emphasizes patient-oriented research, including understanding and application of basic biological sciences, laboratory methods used in clinical research, basic biostatistics and epidemiology, study design and ethics in clinical investigation. Graduates are equipped to translate basic science knowledge to the development of new therapeutic and preventive approaches for disease and age-related infirmities.
The Health Services Research track emphasizes methods for assessing and improving the delivery of effective and cost efficient health care, with the aim of enhancing disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Training leads to proficiency in biostatistics, clinical epidemiology and survey research, health policy and management, design of observational and evaluative studies, and health care economics. Graduates understand how the organization, delivery and financing of health services influence factors such as costs, health outcomes, access to care, and patient satisfaction.
The Health Informatics track emphasizes the opportunities posed by the dramatic increase in health care information and its associated technologies. It reflects the increase in large informational databases such as electronic medical records, and their great potential for analyzing stored information for research on improving human health and delivery of cost-effective medical care. Several courses in health information technology are taught through an educational initiative with UT Houston’s School of Biomedical Informatics.
Clinical Science Degree Requirements
Clinical Science Program Resources