Competencies and Content Areas*

Competency 1: Demonstration of advanced knowledge and application of population health theory and concepts.
Content Areas:

• Biostatistics/statistics
• Epidemiology
• Behavioral and social sciences
• Economics and outcomes research
• Informatics
• Health policy
• Environmental Health

Competency 2: Application of interdisciplinary knowledge/skills to specific areas of population health.Content Areas:

• Varies; depends on specialization area within population health: health policy, behavior theory, applied health economics, chronic care management, and healthcare quality and patient safety

Competency 3: Application of knowledge of the structures, performance, quality, policy, and environmental context of health care to the formulation of solutions for population health problems and prevention.
Content Areas:

• Health determinants of population groups
• Access and use
• Geographic determinants
• Financing of health care
• Health economics
• Health policy
• Organization of health care
• Quality and safety of care

Competency 4: Formulation of population health research questions that are informed by relevant theoretical and conceptual models; systematic reviews of the literature; valid, reliable and generalizable data; and stakeholder needs.
Content Areas:

• Scientific method and theory
• Systematic literature review and meta analysis methods
• Proposal development

Competency 5: Ability to select appropriate study designs to address specific population health research questions.
Content Areas:

• Quantitative research
• Qualitative research
• Mixed method research design

Competency 6: Ability to collect, analyze and/or interpret primary data obtained by survey, surveillance, qualitative, or mixed methods to identify determinants of health.
Content Areas:

• Survey research
• Qualitative research
• Primary data acquisition

Competency 7: Ability to access and manage secondary data from existing public and private sources.Content Areas:

• Health informatics and the use of statistical software
• Population health data sources
• Secondary data acquisition

Competency 8: Implementation of research protocols with standardized procedures that ensure reproducibility of the science.
Content Areas:

• Research management

Competency 9: Ethical and responsible conduct of research in the design, implementation, and dissemination of population health research.
Content Areas:

• Human subjects protection
• Authorship conduct
• Research ethics

Competency 10: Application of appropriate analytic methods to clarify associations between variables and to identify causal inferences

* Adapted from Forrest et al., BMC Health Services Research, 2009 9:107.