The Basics of Epidemiology

I’ve always believed that information is critical to keep us safe, calm, and healthy. As policymakers, the media, and our friends provide us with new data about COVID-19 each day, this series of 10-15 minute videos provides some of the basic concepts of epidemiology to help make you an informed consumer of information. I hope they are helpful - please contact me (link on my homepage) with any comments or suggestions.

Session 1

How disease spreads

This session provides an overview of how epidemiologists think about the spread of disease, and how our conceptual frameworks help identify opportunities to intervene.

 
This is the first of a 9-part series on basic concepts of epidemiology.

Session 2

Quantifying disease spread

This session provides describes how epidemiologists measure the spread of disease, focusing on measuring prevalence and incidence.

 
This is the second of a 9-part series on basic concepts of epidemiology.

Session 3

Measuring disease severity

This session focuses on measuring mortality (death) associated with disease and why estimating case-fatality in the midst of an epidemic like COVID-19 is challenging.

 
This is the third in a 9-part series on the basics of epidemiology.

Session 4

Herd Immunity

This session focuses on herd immunity - how achieving specific thresholds of population immunity keeps the public healthy.

 
This is the fourth of a 9-part series on the basics of epidemiology.

Session 5

Disease Surveillance

This session describes how the U.S. conducts disease surveillance and the system upon which COVID-19 surveillance is dependent.

April 12 update: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a new website on COVID-19 surveillance.

 
This is the fifth of a 9-part series on basic concepts of epidemiology.

Session 6

Outbreak Investigations

This session walks through the CDC’s 13 steps for conducting disease outbreak investigations.

 
This is the sixth in a 9-part series on the basics of epidemiology.

Session 7

Risk

This session explores the concept of risk and how we use risk to quantify the association between an exposure and a disease.

 
This is the seventh in a nine-part series about the basics of epidemiology.

Session 8

Cohort Studies

This session describes cohort studies, which enable us to estimate risk between exposures and disease outcomes.

 
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Session 9

Case-Control Studies

Graduation! This session describes how to conduct case-control studies, in which we estimate exposures among those with disease.

 
Your graduation! This is the ninth and final session in this series on basic concepts of epidemiology.