Teaching Epidemiology: A Guide for Teachers in Epidemiology, Public Health and Clinical Medicine, 4th Edition Doody's Expert Review Review Questionnaire ISBN: 9780199685004 ISBN-10: 0199685002 Copyright: 2015 Edition: 4th Editor: Olsen, Jorn, Greene, Naomi, Saracci, Rodolfo, Trichopoulos, Dimitrios, Doody's Expert Review    Score: 64 Doody's Star Rating™ and Doody's Expert Review provide by Doody Enterprises, Inc. Reviewer: Caitlin Smith,  MS  (University of Iowa College of Public Health) Description This book provides an overview of the major focus areas within epidemiology. Each chapter contains a section of teaching objectives, teaching content, and assessment of student learning. The previous edition was published in 2010. Purpose The first purpose is to aid nonexperts in preparing to teach a course in epidemiology. Specifically, the authors advise that this book will help readers "locate the most important sources of information you need to study before you start" teaching. The second purpose is to provide advice on how to structure teaching of the different topics. The chapters provide an outline of the most important content within each focus area of epidemiology. However, a nonexpert could not simply read the chapters and design a course based on the book alone (this is a good thing, since an epidemiology course would require much more experience than one book can contain). The chapters do not provide specific advice on how to structure teaching for the particular focus area. The advice is general and broad. Audience The authors are subject-matter experts in their respective fields of epidemiology. The target audience, according to the authors, is nonexperts who are preparing to teach a course or unit in epidemiology. This audience is appropriately addressed. Each chapter addresses more specifically the intended students that the teacher will be teaching. Some chapters are written for graduate programs in epidemiology, while others are written for health professional programs. Features This book includes five "context" chapters that provide an overview of epidemiology, 10 chapters on exposure-oriented epidemiology, 12 chapters on outcome-oriented epidemiology, and a chapter for teaching assistants. This chapter is a helpful guide for both professors and teaching assistants to establish the professional environment and expectations for each. Each chapter includes an introduction to the topic, teaching objectives, teaching content, and advice on assessing student achievement. However, all of these sections are very general (for example, no bulleted learning objectives are provided). The book does not provide any teaching materials, such as lecture notes or exam questions. Many chapters provide an outline or list of specific topics to be covered. This is a useful resource for nonexperts who are designing a new course or unit. However, to design an effective course, a textbook for students should be selected and the course should be designed based on a textbook rather than the contents of this book. Assessment This book is a useful starting point for nonexperts who are tasked with teaching an epidemiology course or unit. This book is unique in that it is aimed at instructors rather than students. Thus, it is not comprehensive and is more useful as an outline of the major components of each focus area in epidemiology. Based on a comparison to the table of contents of the previous edition, no new chapters have been added and the chapter on field studies in developing countries has been dropped. The chapters with rapidly changing methods, namely genetic and molecular epidemiology, do not include specific details on the methods used in these fields, making it doubtful that these have been updated much, with the exception of a brief mention of next generation sequencing. Thus, this new edition does not seem necessary. Review Questionnaire Range Question Score 1-10 Are the author's objectives met? 6 1-10 Rate the worthiness of those objectives. 4 1-5 Is this written at an appropriate level? 5 1-5 Is there significant duplication? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) 2 1-5 Are there significant omissions? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) 2 1-5 Rate the authority of the authors. 5 1-5 Are there sufficient illustrations? 3 1-5 Rate the pedagogic value of the illustrations. 5 1-5 Rate the print quality of the illustrations. 5 1-5 Are there sufficient references? 5 1-5 Rate the currency of the references. 5 1-5 Rate the pertinence of the references. 5 1-5 Rate the helpfulness of the index. 5 1-5 If important in this specialty, rate the physical appearance of the book N/A 1-10 Is this a worthwhile contribution to the field? 2 1-10 If this is a 2nd or later edition, is this new edition needed? 2 ©2024 Doody Enterprises, Inc.