Program Overview

Program Overview

The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Epidemiology is a research-intensive program offered by the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health in the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences. The program's objective is to equip students with skills in critical thinking, literature review, and academic writing to pursue professional opportunities in academia or industry.

Program Description

The program may also be taken as one of the following options:

• Global Health option: focuses on topics of global health relevance where students incorporate these into their core coursework and thesis research.
• Pharmacoepidemiology option: provides in-depth training for students on pharmacoepidemiologic methods and the application of these methods to study the population effects (benefits and harm) of pharmaceutical products.
• Population Dynamics option: focuses on training in demographic methods (including life table analyses) and critical population dynamic issues such as population health, migration, aging, family dynamics, and labour markets.

Unique Program Features

• Students develop advanced epidemiological research skills needed to undertake original contributions to new knowledge related to the determinants of health and disease, prevention, prognosis, treatment, and outcomes;
• Department Faculty members specialize in clinical epidemiology, pharmacoepidemiology, cancer, cardiovascular, respiratory, perinatal, environmental, and occupational epidemiology; clinical trials, health services research;
• Faculty members are actively involved in newly emerging areas of research such as social epidemiology, public and population health, infectious diseases, neuroepidemiology, psychiatric epidemiology, global health, clinical and health research informatics, genetic, and molecular epidemiology;
• Graduates pursue careers in public health, health planning, and quality monitoring in local, regional, federal, and international health authorities, statistical and technology assessment agencies, the pharmaceutical industry, and in clinical and academic research organizations.

Admission Requirements

• An eligible Bachelor's degree with a minimum 3.0 GPA out of a possible 4.0 GPA
• English-language proficiency

Available Intakes and Application Deadlines

• Intake: Fall
• Applications Open: September 15
• Application Deadline - International: December 1
• Application Deadline - Domestic (Canadian, Permanent Resident of Canada): December 1

Research Areas

The program focuses on various research areas, including:

• Population health
• Prevention
• Health policy
• Health inequalities
• Disease surveillance