All courses follow the Penn State academic calendar. The fall term runs from late August to late December, the spring term runs from early January through early May, and the summer term runs from mid-May to early August.
Most courses are taught on weekday evenings, according to a specific semester course sequence. Only 500-level courses can be counted toward the degree.
It is possible to acquire 15 Penn State credits in two terms by attending classes three nights per week. Typically classes contain an invigorating mix of physicians, nurses, graduate students and allied health professionals.
PHS 518 Scientific Communication A survey of the formats in which medical science is presented, with exercises in the preparation of abstracts, manuscripts, and grant applications, including illustrations.
PHS 519 Patient-Oriented Research A survey course designed to provide foundational information regarding core clinical research topics presented in theory and with application.
PHS 520 Principles of Biostatistics Introduction to the application of techniques and interpretation of results that are commonly used to plan, analyze, and report clinical and health services research.
PHS 530 Principles of Health Services Research A foundation course on the principles of health services research and the methods used to conduct health services research.
PHS 536 Health Survey Research Methods Provides instruction on how to design health research survey questionnaires and how to conduct survey studies.
PHS 550 Principles of Epidemiology Introduction to the features of study design that are commonly used in epidemiologic research, providing real-life examples of various analytic techniques.
PHS 553 Infectious Disease Epidemiology Principles of infectious disease epidemiology and the use of epidemiologic methods to address infectious diseases of national and international importance.
PHS 570 Health Economics & Economic Evaluation Introduction to applied economic evaluation, with emphasis on micro-economic theory, cost-effectiveness and economic modeling.
PHS 580 Clinical Trials Introduction to the concepts of statistical design and analysis in biomedical research, with special emphasis on the clinical trial
PHS 500 Research Ethics for Clinical Investigators Familiarizes graduate students with the principles of ethical conduct in clinical research.
PHS 521 Applied Biostatistics An intermediate course that provides more in-depth development of analytical topics covered in Principles of Biostatistics, such as analysis of variance and regression techniques
PHS 529 Biostatistical Computing for Public Health Provides experience in intermediate and advanced usage of a biostatistical software package for public health data analyses.
PHS 535 Quality of Care Measurement Emphasizes the concepts, methods, and measurement issues involved with assessing and improving the quality of health care
PHS 540 Decision Analysis Provides an introduction to the methods and applications of decision analysis in clinical decision making.
PHS 551 Advanced Epidemiological Methods Covers features of study design and multivariate techniques that are commonly used in epidemiological research
PHS 552 Molecular Epidemiology of Chronic Disease Introduction to molecular and chronic disease epidemiology and major issues in molecular epidemiological studies
PHS 600 Thesis Research Research training to enable the student to advance his/her knowledge about a selected topic in public health sciences.
PHS 522 Multivariate Biostatistics Focuses on advanced topics in biostatistics involving multivariate responses in biomedical research