The core curriculum for the Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy track consists of a total of 48 credit hours of didactic course work which includes 36 credit hours of core didactic courses as listed below, and six (6) semesters of seminar (one [1] credit hour each semester). In addition, students must take at least six (6) credit hours of elective courses in an area of concentration of the student’s choosing and with consent of their major advisor. Areas of concentration allow the student to establish a depth of knowledge in an area of interest related to their dissertation topic. Concentration areas include, but are not limited to epidemiology, health services research, statistics, and informatics.
In addition to the didactic course work, students must enroll for 18 to 24 hours of dissertation credits. In total, students without a prior Master’s degree (Master of Science, Master of Public Health, Master of Business Administration, etc.) must successfully complete a minimum of 72 credit hours of study to fulfill the requirements for a Doctor of Philosophy. Students with a prior Master of Science must successfully complete a minimum of 66 credit hours of study. Students must also successfully complete and defend a dissertation for degree completion. Students must also complete at least one hour of Mentored Research Experience credit.
Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy Track Curriculum*
Year One
Fall Semester
- PSCI 51173 — Foundations of Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy Research Methods (three hours)
- BIOS 50133 — Biostatistics I (three hours)
- PSCI 51081 — Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy Seminar (one hour)
- PSCI 51253 – Applied Health Econometrics (three hours)
And choose at least one of the following courses:
- EPID 51103— Epidemiology I (three hours)
- PSCI 51243† – U.S. Healthcare System (three hours)
- PHAR 51171 — Scientific Communication and Ethics I (one hour)
Spring Semester
- BIOS 52103 — Biostatistics II (three hours)
- PSCI 51193 — Applied Research Methods using Retrospective Data (three hours)
- PSCI 51263 — Patient-Reported Outcomes Measures (three hours)
- PSCI 51081 — Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy Seminar (one hour)
- PHAR 71082‡ – Drug Information (two hours) or choose one additional course in an area of concentration or required courses not completed or PSCI 5114V Research in Pharmaceutical Sciences
Summer
- PSCI 5114V — Research in Pharmaceutical Sciences (one hour)
Year Two
Fall Semester
- PSCI 61153 — Pharmacoepidemiology (three hours)
- PSCI 51233 — Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy Evaluation (three hours)
- PSCI 51081 — Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy Seminar (one hour)
- And choose one additional course in an area of concentration, a required course not completed, or PSCI 5114V Research
Spring Semester
- PSCI 51203 — Pharmacoeconomics and Health Technology Assessment (three hours)
- PSCI 51081 — Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy Seminar (one hour)
- And choose one additional course in an area of concentration, a required course not completed, or PSCI 5114V Research
Summer
- PSCI 5114V — Research (one hour)
- PSCI 5116V — Mentored Research Experience (one hour)
- Candidacy Exam
Year Three
Fall & Spring Semesters
- PSCI 51081 — Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy Seminar (one hour per semester)
- PSCI 6200V — Dissertation (nine hours)
- Complete remaining required core courses or courses in an area of concentration
Summer
- PSCI 6200V — Dissertation (one hour)
Year Four
Fall and Spring Semesters
- PSCI 6200V — Dissertation (9 hours per semester)
Summer
- PSCI 6200V — Dissertation (one hour)
*This is a typical sequence, but several Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy track courses are offered every other year. Thus, the actual sequence may vary.
†indicates didactic course required for non U.S. trained health care professionals
‡indicates didactic course required for students without prior degree in any health field (pharmacy, medicine, nursing, etc.)
Electives by Area of Concentration
Note: this is not a complete list of electives. Additional electives may be taken with the consent of your advisor.
See the Graduate School Catalog and College of Public Health Course Catalog for elective course descriptions
Mathematics/Statistics
- HPMT 60131 — Mathematics and Statistics Primer
- BIOS 51131 — Biostatistics Computing with R I
- BIOS 52001 — Biostatistics Computing with R II
- BIOS 52333 — Statistical Methods for Clinical Trials
- BIOS 53133 — Nonparametric Methods
- BIOS 62233 — Biostatistics III
Epidemiology
- EPID 53203— Epidemiology II
- EPID 53343— Epidemiology III
Health Policy/Health Services Research
- HPMT 51053 — Introductions to Health Economics
- HPMT 61143 — Advanced Public Health Policy & Management
- HPMT 63133 — Advanced Methods in Health Services Research
- HPMT 63153 — Advanced Methods for Quality & Health Outcomes Research
- HPMT 63303 — Advanced Topics in Implementation Science
Patient Reported Outcomes and Qualitative Methods
- HBHE 62133 — Applied Behavior Research Methods
Informatics
- BMIG 50203 — Biomedicine for Informaticists
- BMIG 50103 — Data Information and Knowledge Representation
- BMIG 50303 — Computational Methods in Biomedical Informatics
- BMIG 50501 — Health Information Systems
- BMIG 50801 — Clinical Data Standards
- BMIG 51102 — Foundations of Biomedical Informatics – Clinical Information
- BMIG 51202 — Foundations of BMI: Population Health Information
- BMIG 52103 — Scientific Data Visualizations
- BMIG 60104 — Clinical Research Informatics
- BMIG 60103 — Data Warehousing, Aggregation and Reporting
- BMIG 60201 — Healthcare Informatics of Quality and Patient Safety
- BMIG 61002 — Clinical Decision Support
Doctoral Advisory Committee
The Doctoral Advisory Committee is formed by the Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy track director in consultation with the student and must consist of five faculty holding graduate faculty status at UAMS. A minimum of three members must be from the PSCI graduate faculty and the at least one shall be a member from another graduate program on campus or outside UAMS.
Candidacy Exam
A minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 on all required course work and for those students without a prior M.S. thesis degree, the completion of a research practicum (defined below) is required to be eligible for the candidacy exam. Candidates for the Doctor of Philosophy degree must pass a candidacy examination. This examination will be expected to be administered after approximately two years of graduate study but before the fourth year of study. The exam will be graded on a Pass/No-Pass basis. Should a student receive a No-Pass they will be allowed one additional attempt to repeat the exam.
Research Practicum
The research practicum is a customized mentored research activity to familiarize the student with the mechanics of the research process including study implementation, data acquisition and analysis, and dissemination of research findings at conferences and the peer-reviewed literature. The research practicum is a completed research project and will be required prior to the candidacy exam for all students that have not successfully completed a M.S. thesis degree. Research experiences gained in the course work are encouraged to be developed into a research practicum. Ideally, the research practicum is expected to be completed during the first two years of the students study and will be supervised by their advisor or a prior course instructor in the Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy track. Successful completion of the practicum will require at least one manuscript approved by their advisor submitted by the student as lead author to a peer-reviewed journal.
Dissertation
Once the student has passed the candidacy exam, they are considered a Ph.D. candidate. Then, the student is required to register for at least one credit hour of Dissertation credit (PSCI 6201) each semester until they have successfully submitted and defended their dissertation work. A total of 18 credit hours of Dissertation (PSCI 6201) are required for graduation. The student will be required to successfully defend their dissertation and must provide the Graduate School Office at least 30 days’ notice of the dissertation defense date, time and location.