Biostatistics And Epidemiology Impact Factor

[Stefanie Mordaunt]

TheDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics prepares you to investigate the causes and risk factors of diseases and injuries in populations. Epidemiologists conduct both experimental and observational studies within the community, including studying the characteristics of individuals and their physical and social environments. Their findings provide public health practitioners and policy makers with guidance to promote health and prevent and control diseases and injuries.

You can learn from and participate with faculty members, most of whom are employees of the New York State Department of Health with University at Albany appointments. These faculty are actively practicing epidemiology and addressing the public health problems and priorities of New York.

The Albany Infant and Mother Study (AIMS) is a prospective cohort study of pregnant women and their babies born at Albany Medical Center. Led by Principal Investigator Allison Appleton, this study is examining how prenatal psychosocial factors and aspects of the physical environment may jointly influence the growth, health, and development of children. The AIMS team is also examining the biologic and epigenetic mechanisms that may link psychosocial adversity and exposure to environmental toxicants during pregnancy with infant health and child development. To date, 300 mother and infant pairs have enrolled in the study, and follow-up with families is ongoing. The study population is largely socially disadvantaged and racially/ethnically diverse. The AIMS research team is interdisciplinary, blending theory and methods from epidemiology, obstetrics, psychology, anthropology, environmental health sciences, and molecular biology to improve the health and well-being for mothers and children and reduce health disparities.

CAMP, which has been based at SPH since 2019, develops epidemiological and economic models to predict the answers to important public health questions in the areas of HIV, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis and adolescent health. CAMP received nearly $3 million in supplemental funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to scale up its mathematical modeling work.

An interdisciplinary UAlbany team has received almost a half million dollars from the National Institutes of Health for a comprehensive study on violence, and the project is among the small number nationwide to receive a perfect score from the Institute. Led by principal investigator Melissa Tracy, an associate professor of epidemiology, the team will study the processes that contribute to violence within social networks and test strategies that could potentially prevent it.

The School of Public Health is conducting the UPSIDE study, which is funded by the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) and aims to better understand Hepatitis C (HCV) and related issues among persons who inject drugs (PWID) in Upstate New York. Because HCV is most commonly transmitted by injection drug, a behavior which has been increasing as part of the drug epidemic in the U.S. and New York, the spread of HCV has been increasing. Although PWID are the priority group to understand ongoing spread of HCV, few research studies have been conducted on this population in upstate New York.

Principal investigators Tomoko Udo and Eli Rosenberg are leading the UPSIDE study, in partnership with syringe exchange programs run by Catholic Charities Care Coordination Services in the Capital Region, the Alliance for Positive Health in Plattsburgh, and the Southern Tier AIDS Program in Norwich.

The Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics has international partners in China, Romania, Pakistan, and Japan. Leveraging partnerships with Sun Yat-sen and the Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute in Guangzhou, China, the Department has also created research placement/internship opportunities for graduate students to work on joint research projects. These placements have resulted in more than two dozen joint publications for our students. The Department has also provided summer training programs for clinical researchers, 10-week programs for visiting scholars, technical support to develop a new graduate-level epidemiology course at Kazakh National Medical University, and epidemiologic training programs for students from China.

Determination of Genomic Epidemiology of Historical Clostridium perfringens Outbreaks in New York State by Use of Two Web-Based Platforms: National Center for Biotechnology Information Pathogen Detection and FDA GalaxyTrakr

Risks of nonchromosomal birth defects, small-for-gestational age birthweight, and prematurity with in vitro fertilization: effect of number of embryos transferred and plurality at conception versus at birth

Associations between perceived neighborhood environment and cognitive function among middle-aged and older women and men: Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos Sociocultural Ancillary Study

Determination of Genomic Epidemiology of Historical Clostridium perfringens Outbreaks in New York State Using Two Web-based Platforms: National Center for Biotechnology Information-Pathogen Detection and FDA-GalaxyTrakr

Characterization of Emetic and Diarrheal Bacillus cereus Strains From a 2016 Foodborne Outbreak Using Whole-Genome Sequencing: Addressing the Microbiological, Epidemiological, and Bioinformatic Challenges

Julia T. is earning her MPH with a concentration in epidemiology. The areas of public health she's most interested in are maternal and child health, health equity, and infectious diseases. She has completed an internship analyzing Medicare outpatient data and is currently conducting research at the New York State Department of Health's Division of Nutrition, assessing the impact of the pandemic on the collection of anthropometric data in the Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System.

Aditi Bhanushali is a dentist from India pursuing her MS in Epidemiology at UAlbany. She previously worked in rural parts of India, where the population had poor oral hygiene and lacked basic oral health awareness - and this made her interested in learning more about public health so that she could create change in her home country. Currently, Aditi is interested in infectious disease epidemiology.

Meredith Barranco works on a project to estimate prevalence and incidence of hepatitis C infection among persons who use drugs in New York State. The data from this annual surveillance study will be used by the New York State Department of Health as one of the metrics to see if they will achieve the goal of eliminating HCV from the state. She is also currently in the process of publishing the results from the pilot study.

John Angles works as a research assistant for the Coalition for Applied Modeling and Prevention (CAMP) that aims to develop epidemiological and economic models to predict the answers to important public health questions in collaboration with the CDC and academic partners from a half dozen other universities. The results from this grant often directly inform policies and practices developed by the CDC.

Two School of Public Health students received honorable mention as "Students Who Rocked Public Health in 2021" by the editors of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. Since fall 2020, the students have assisted the University at Albany by running a daily report for campus surveillance testing. The report is shared with the university leadership every day to keep track of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection rate on campus, and informed risk mitigation strategies, including whether to implement surge test or "pivot" to remote instructions.

Adaobi Okoro works as a research assistant for the Office of Program Evaluation and Research at the NYSDOH AIDS Institute that aims to conduct comprehensive, coordinated, and innovative program evaluation and research in multiple AIDS Institute program areas. The work from this office aims to enhance the quality of HIV, STD, Hepatitis C, and opioid overdose prevention services, clinical care, and service delivery systems in New York

Our mission is to improve health and reduce health disparities in Maryland, the nation, and the world. This is accomplished by examining environmental, social and behavioral, biological, and genetic factors using established epidemiological and quantitative methods, as well as developing new scientifically grounded approaches, that are applied predominately to identifying determinants of health and discovering and evaluating primary and secondary prevention strategies for chronic diseases and infectious diseases. Faculty and graduate student research, as well as graduate program curricula, examine important health issues through a social and behavioral lens.

"I chose to study epidemiology at UMD because I think the faculty in our department are unmatched. They are always willing to help students and have diverse, but complementary expertise in the field."

The department trains students as the next generation of researchers and professionals in public health and prepares them to be competitive for the job market and successful in their careers as epidemiologists and biostatistics.

Our program offers a curricular track directed toward acquiring proficiency in both biostatistics and epidemiology. Training emphasizes the development of skills applicable to the study of the occurrence and distribution of disease, focusing on determining the impact and magnitude of disease frequency so that effective control measures can be designed. Areas of study include the investigation of the natural history and clinical course of disease, as well as the study of statistical methods used to identify and evaluate risk factors associated with disease outcomes.

Graduates are qualified for positions in federal, state and local health departments, as well as positions in academic research and in the private medical and health care fields. Some graduates decide to pursue doctoral studies in epidemiology or biostatistics.

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