Registration for 2024 closed on Monday, May 27, 2024. Click here to be notified when 2025 workshops are announced.
Explore new topics in population health sciences, patient-reported outcomes, and a variety of research methods that will provide new frameworks you can apply on the job. Our workshops employ live discussions, case studies, hands-on learning, or lectures. All sessions draw on the expertise of Duke University faculty and will give you new tools that will strengthen your knowledge base and research.
"Summer Institute exceeded my expectations. The workshops and follow-up recordings were highly beneficial and impactful. I give the entire series a perfect rating of 10 out of 10 and wholeheartedly recommend it."
—2023 Summer Institute Attendee
Instructors
Devon Check, PhD, Assistant Professor in Population Health Sciences
Marc Ryser, PhD, Assistant Professor in Population Health Sciences and Mathematics
In this workshop, attendees will be introduced to the ever-evolving field of Population Health Sciences, which draws on multidisciplinary perspectives to understand the determinants of health across populations and designs evidence-informed approaches to improve the health of those populations.
Attendees will see examples of population health research projects and become familiar with key domains of population health research such as:
- Research question formulation
- Strengths and limitations of commonly-used population-based data sources
- Stakeholder engagement throughout the research process
Workshop Outcomes:
By the end of this workshop participants will have acquired a big-picture understanding of the field of population health sciences, and will be well-prepared for more in-depth workshops offered by the PHS virtual Summer Institute.
Recommended Audience: Undergraduate and graduate students, fellows, residents, trainees, program or research staff, and scientists interested in learning more about population health sciences
Date: Tuesday, June 11, 10:00AM–12:45PM ET
Class Size: No Limit
This is a single workshop delivered over two days.
Instructor
Samir Soneji, DataShare Biostatistics Team Manager/Principal Biostatistician
This workshop examines the social, economic, cultural, organizational, and institutional factors that impact public and population health in the US. These factors include population characteristics (social class, age, gender, cultural background, race, ethnicity), individual beliefs and behaviors, and socio-political systems and practices that affect public health problems and policies. Although the course focuses on the United States, many of the same factors affect health and longevity across population subgroups in other countries. The workshop will draw from the social science (demography, sociology, and economics) and public health literature and challenge students to think about distal-level factors (e.g., poverty, racism, stigma) that affect the health of communities and populations.
Workshop Outcomes: By the end of this workshop, participants will have acquired a broad understanding of health inequalities and the mechanisms through which social factors affect health and wellbeing.
Recommended Audience: Practicing clinicians, clinicians in training, and graduate students.
Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2:00-4:45PM ET (1 of 2) & Wednesday, June 12, 10:00AM–12:45PM ET (2 of 2)
Class Size: No limit
This is a single workshop delivered over two days.
Instructors
Heather King, PhD, Assistant Professor in Population Health Sciences
Leah Zullig, PhD, Professor in Population Health Sciences
This workshop focuses on dissemination, implementation, and improvement science and its format is a hybrid of didactic teaching and discussion. Those new to the field will receive an introduction to dissemination, implementation, and improvement science and an overview of the field, including different perspectives toward organizational improvement, and their importance in the context of the evolving US healthcare system and in the context of population health sciences. We will discuss relevant theories, models, and frameworks; commonly applied research designs; measures and measurement considerations; and implementation strategies. We will also address the balance between ensuring fidelity and maximizing fit for context.
Workshop Outcomes:
By the end of the workshop participants will be able to:
- Recognize dissemination, implementation, and improvement science in a local context as well as within the larger US healthcare system
- Interpret scholarly literature, including different perspectives towards organizational improvement
- Compare and contrast theories, models, and/or frameworks
- Critically evaluate commonly applied research study designs as well as measures
- Identify and describe implementation strategies
- Understand key concepts for adapting evidence-based programs to different populations within varied geographic or clinical settings
Recommended Audience: Clinicians, practitioners, researchers, students, trainees, and staff interested in an introduction to dissemination, implementation, and improvement science
Date: Wednesday, June 12, 1:00–3:45PM ET (1 of 2) & Thursday, June 13, 10:00AM–12:45PM ET (2 of 2)
Class Size: 25 faculty/staff - 10 students
Instructor
Jennifer Gierisch, PhD, Associate Professor in Population Health Sciences
Research study findings are used to form the foundation of clinical practice, patient decision-making, community action, and policy. Yet, funders, policymakers and the research community state that research can be ineffectual and irrelevant without key input and collaboration from “end-user” communities, namely those that are impacted by the findings (eg., patients, clinicians, and caregivers.)
To bridge this gap, population health researchers and clinical scientists should know:
- How to engage diverse groups outside academia
- How to be responsive to their needs, preferences, and values
These approaches will generate more applicable evidence for clinical and health policy decision-making and increase the dissemination and sustainability of research findings in the real world.
This workshop will introduce various approaches and principles on how to include patients and other key groups as collaborators in the research process and will build skills that optimize authentic engagement. Learn how to apply community-engaged research approaches as an evidence-based method to improve study feasibility, acceptability, relevance, and rigor.
Workshop Outcomes: By the end of the workshop, participants will get a practical foundation in strategies and approaches that support meaningful engagement with diverse groups in the research process. Participants will also understand the principles and practices that foster authentic partnered and engaged research and become familiar with its key components such as:
- Determining the role of engaged approaches in population health science
- Identifying patient, clinician, and community collaborators and informants
- Fostering methods for intentional engagement (e.g., how to support and train community collaborators and build engagement into your research proposals)
Recommended Audience: Researchers, research staff, and students who are new to engaged research approaches and are interested in learning how to start incorporating such methods into their studies.
Date: Thursday, June 13, 2:00PM–4:45PM ET
Class Size: No limit
This workshop is offered in a hybrid format, either in-person or via Zoom.
Instructor
Hayden Bosworth, PhD, Vice-Chair and Professor in Population Health Sciences
Lesley Curtis, PhD, Chair and Professor in Population Health Sciences
During this half-day seminar, attendees will learn ways to integrate digital health into research and program evaluations within health services organizations and systems. Using case studies, we will explore the ‘state of the art’ in digital health and how it can be harnessed for interventions, data collection, and evaluations. We will also explore the intersection of digital health and health equity, identifying approaches to minimize unintended consequences of digital health interventions.
Workshop Outcomes:
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Operationalize and define what is meant by digital health
- Critique published health services research and health program evaluations
- Design and implement interventions that incorporate digital health
- Design more comprehensive evaluations of interventions that incorporate digital health by applying the basics of process and outcome evaluation, and by identifying the appropriate qualitative and quantitative measures of effect
- Identify potential barriers and facilitators to the use of digital health
- Identify approaches to minimize the inequitable impacts of digital health
Recommended Audience: Those carrying out policy research, social science research, or program impact evaluation within health delivery systems as well as developing and implementing programs to improve healthcare outcomes.
Date: Monday, June 17, 10:00AM–12:45PM ET
Class Size: No Limit
This workshop is offered in a hybrid format, on Monday, June 17 and June 18 (half-days). Participate either via Zoom, or in-person at our departmental location (215 Morris St., Durham, NC).
Instructors
Juan Marcos Gonzalez, PhD, Assistant Professor in Population Health Sciences
Reed Johnson, PhD, Professor in Population Health Sciences
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Identify appropriate uses of different preference-elicitation formats
- Understand relevant applications of patient-preference information in population health sciences and health policy
- Critically evaluate specific decisions associated with the development of a patient-preference instrument
- Conceptualize how to create a survey
This workshop is offered in a hybrid format, either in-person or via Zoom.
Instructor
Hayden Bosworth, PhD, Vice-Chair and Professor of Population Health Sciences
During this half-day workshop, attendees will discuss methods for undertaking research and program evaluation within health services organizations and systems. Using case studies, we will explore the ‘state of the art’ in research methods.
Workshop Outcomes:
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Critique published health services research and health program evaluations
- Design and implement more effective interventions that translate evidence into practice, policy and public health by identifying community, patient, clinician and organizational factors that serve as barriers and facilitators
- Design more comprehensive evaluations of interventions that translate evidence into practice by applying the basics of process and outcome evaluation, and by identifying the appropriate qualitative and quantitative effect measures
- Identify different types of study design including observational, pre-experimental, and experimental and their inherent threats to internal and external validity
- Develop, evaluate, and implement healthcare delivery interventions
Recommended Audience: Individuals carrying out policy research, social science research, or program impact evaluation within health delivery systems as well as those developing and implementing programs to improve healthcare outcomes.
Date: Tuesday, June 18, 2:00PM–4:45PM ET
Class Size: No limit
NOTE: This workshop is offered in a seated, in-person format only, and at our departmental location (215 Morris St., Durham, NC).
Instructors
Nina Sperber, PhD, Associate Professor in Population Health Sciences
Hannah Lane, PhD, Assistant Professor in Population Health Sciences
Integrating qualitative and quantitative data in mixed methods research provides a deeper understanding of a problem than using a singular methodological approach. Mixed methods lets the strengths of one approach even out the limitations of another. Employing presentations and interactive discussions, participants will learn:
- Rationale for using mixed methods research
- Core mixed-methods study designs
- Applications of mixed methods to population health research
Workshop Outcomes:
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Articulate the rationale for using mixed methods research in population health
- Identify problems or questions that warrant the use of mixed methods
- Understand and apply core mixed methods study designs
Recommended Audience: Population health researchers and practitioners, healthcare or public health operations personnel, and policy partners
Date: Thursday, June 20, 10:00AM–4:45PM ET
Class Size: 15 faculty/staff - 15 students
Instructor
Amy Corneli, PhD, Associate Professor in Population Health Sciences
This workshop will highlight the fundamental principles and common pitfalls in the design, implementation, and dissemination of qualitative descriptive research, focusing on the areas of medicine and population health sciences.
Workshop Outcomes:
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Explain the various approaches to qualitative inquiry
- Describe how to select the best design and method to answer qualitative research questions
- Apply key principles of questionnaire design and interviewing for gathering rich qualitative data
- Describe essential information to include in participant summaries and peer-reviewed manuscripts that report qualitative research findings
- Avoid common pitfalls in qualitative research
Recommended Audience: For those interested in designing, conducting, and writing up qualitative research at the investigator level, either for studies using only qualitative research or studies using qualitative research as one component/study aim of a larger study.
Date: Monday, June 24, 10:00AM–4:45PM ET
Class Size: No Limit
Instructor
Brian Perry, MPH, Research Practice Manager
During this workshop, participants will be introduced to applied strategies for developing deductive and inductive codebooks; applying codes to text; identifying themes; and ensuring rigor throughout the process of reading, categorizing, and interpreting qualitative data. Rapid analysis methods and strategies for maintaining rigor during this process will also be discussed. This workshop includes an introduction to NVivo, a qualitative data analysis program for organizing and displaying data.
Workshop Outcomes:
This workshop will focus on qualitative data analysis. By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Describe the general steps in using applied thematic data analysis to analyze qualitative data
- Apply concepts related to coding and identifying themes in qualitative data
- Understand how the analysis approach should be fit-for-purpose based on the objectives of the study and intent of the data
- Use NVivo to code and display data
- Explain the benefits and limitations of using computer software to assist in qualitative data analysis
Recommended Audience: For students and social scientists carrying out qualitative research involving text-based and/or transcribed interview and focus group data using semi-structured data collection tools.
Date: Tuesday, June 25, 10:00AM–4:45PM ET
Class Size: No limit
Have questions about the Summer Institute? Contact us.