The Daily Schedule Of An Epidemiologist

Epidemiologists perform various evidence-based studies that look at analyzing causes, patterns and the effect of certain conditions and disorders in populations around the world. Epidemiology is very important for public health as the evidence-based research done by these doctors helps to identify risk factors for certain diseases, and helps setup goals for preventative healthcare. These studies will then result in appropriate protocols and policies being setup in public healthcare.

This discipline has helped to develop methodologies that are currently being used in clinical research and public health studies. The duties of an epidemiologist includes helping with the study designs, the collection, statistical analysis and interpretation of data and disseminating the results. The major areas where epidemiologists focus on include the cause or aetiology of a disease, disease surveillance, outbreak investigation, screening, disease transmission, biomonitoring and comparing the effects of treatments in clinical trials.

Clinical trials used in Epidemiology

Case series

These trials are qualitative studies looking at the clinical findings of a single patient or a small group of patients who are diagnosed with the same illness or condition. This would be a descriptive study and can't be used to interpret findings to relate to the general population.

Case series studies can also be used as a statistical technique that compares periods during which patients are exposed to a factor that has the potential to cause an illness, with periods when they are not exposed to that factor. In this instance, the study is described as self-controlled where individual patient follow-up time is divided into exposed and unexposed periods. An example of where results from such studies are used is in that of adverse events to vaccinations. 

Case-control studies

These are retrospective studies where a group of patients, that have a certain disease, is compared with a group of individuals who don't have the disease. The latter is called the "control group" and they should come from the same population as the patients who do have the disease. The case-control study then looks back in time at any potential exposures that both groups may have encountered and the results are compared between them.

Cohort studies

This study looks at subjects who are at risk of contracting an illness or being diagnosed with the condition that is under investigation. This would then mean that the test subject should be free of the disease when the cohort study starts. The study subjects are then followed up to assess what their outcomes are regarding the condition that is being investigated. An example of a cohort study would be investigating the long-term cardiovascular outcomes of obese versus non-obese patients.

A cohort study is different to a case-control study, as the former compares a disease outcome between two population groups versus the latter where two groups of individual are being retrospectively compared relative to a condition existing in one group and not the other.

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Outbreak investigation

An epidemiologist will identify the existence of an outbreak and then try and verify if a certain diagnosis is related to the outbreak. A hypothesis will be developed to determine the cause of the problem and then data will be collected so that the analysis of the situation can be performed. 

If the study yields information regarding a connection between a disease and an outbreak in the environment, control and prevention systems will then be developed and implemented.

The Training And Daily Schedule Of An Epidemiologist

Epidemiologists are specialists in their field of study. They can be medical or PhD doctors, as well as Masters graduates who have decided to specialise further. The residency programme is in public health and preventive medicine and takes 5 years to complete.

Thereafter, epidemiologists can take up work at various institutions that include the following:

• Public health or health protection services.
• Non-profit organizations.
• Hospitals.
• Universities.
• Government entities such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
• For-profit organizations such as pharmaceutical and medical device companies or contract research organizations (CROs).

Monday

Epidemiologists won't be seeing patients directly but rather handle the information that is gathered from them by clinical researchers. The majority of the work done by these specialists is office based as they have to design project studies and collect and interpret relevant data that is needed for a particular study.

Mondays would be used to develop what type of study would be used for a particular project. This would then entail having meetings with staff such as clinical research co-ordinators.

Tuesday

This day is used to collect the data from the research sites and then implement it into the particular study that the specialist is busy with. All this information will then be interpreted and a hypothesis will be established. Clinical data managers are consulted to assist here.

This part of the study doesn't happen overnight as data is constantly being sent to or researched by the epidemiologist. The process is a long one as the data being sent depends on factors such as what study is being done, cohort studies being very long in nature as patients need to be followed up for years, and how many test subjects are involved, the more people who are involved in a study means that the research team receives more information which means more work for them to go through. 

Wednesday

Studies that have been completed and where a hypothesis exists that has relevance to a particular disease will then be sent for approval to appear in a journal or for presentation, such as cardiovascular outcomes in obese patients to a group of cardiologists, for example.

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Thursday

This day will usually be used for the training of under- and post-graduate students as most epidemiologists are involved with hospitals and teaching institutions such as medical schools.

The day will also be used to incorporate the findings of studies into developing prevention policies and protocols which will need to be implemented at public heathcare sites.

Friday

Administrative issues are finalised on this day and the members involved with the study project need to hand in all their work and feedback to the team leader. If there is outstanding work, then it will be expected that the team put in additional hours such as after work and even on weekends to complete their tasks.