There are many fields in the public health sector, and epidemiology is one of the more scientific ones. If you plan to pursue a career in epidemiology, it is best first to understand what it is all about.
What is Epidemiology?
Epidemiology is the method of finding the causes of health outcomes and diseases. It primarily deals with infectious diseases to understand how they spread so that appropriate measures can be taken to prevent outbreaks. Even though epidemiologists belong to the healthcare field, their primary work is conducted in laboratories. However, when a disease breaks out, epidemiologists go into the field to directly study the disease, collect samples, and advise the concerned authorities on how to contain the spread. They are usually the first line of defense when there is a threat of an epidemic breaking out, and their work directly contributes to saving the lives of those affected by the disease. Along with the initial response, their work also contributes to creating vaccines and tools for disease detection.
During the last few decades, epidemiology has expanded outside of infectious diseases. It has also come to deal with understanding health outcomes resulting from environmental exposures, natural disasters, and non-infectious diseases. An epidemiologist career now also involves the studying of non-infectious diseases, chronic illnesses, environmental health, and occupational health. Today’s epidemiologists study a very wide array of public health issues that plague the general population.
Job Description
Most jobs in epidemiology involve working in a laboratory as a researcher, analyzing data, and finding conclusions. However, epidemiologists have the opportunity to work in several different settings.
Inform Public Health Policies
Jobs in the public sector may require you to identify potential health crises and make detailed reports about them. You may have to devise a plan of action and present it to policymakers as your research and findings will form the ground of their health policies. And which will minimize outbreaks and stop the spread of infections. You may even be called upon to advise on public health strategies and healthcare policies unrelated to infectious diseases.
Collect Data
Epidemiologists do not deal with individual patients but rather see them collectively and treat the whole community as their patients. Some jobs require you to interact with people suffering from infectious diseases through questionnaires, studies, and observations to discover their symptoms. You may even have to collect samples to conduct tests on or instruct other medical professionals on data collection. It generates useful data that can be analyzed to understand the disease better. If the disease is of unknown origin, the data collected can help you determine its origin and how it spreads from person to person. These findings are also relayed to doctors to help them better care for their patients. However, this may require traveling to different outbreak sites, which can be risky.
Study Environmental Hazards
The advent of technology in the last few decades has greatly increased the amounts of pollutants in our environment, and these pollutants cause many different types of illnesses and diseases. Epidemiologists are frequently tasked with investigating the cause of illnesses like asthma that sometimes start affecting many new people residing in one area. The unique skill set of epidemiologists enables them to correctly identify the root of the problem, for example, a new factory in the area, and make suitable recommendations to rectify the problem.
Investigate Injuries
Epidemiologists do not deal with injuries on an individual level like a doctor. Still, they are called to investigate in special circumstances. For example, an increase in homicides or suicides in a particular community may require an epidemiologist to figure out the cause behind the spike in the statistics. Suppose there is a sudden surge in domestic violence. In that case, an epidemiologist might determine what drives people to commit this crime.
Other emergencies
Sometimes epidemiologists are called to work in areas that are not exactly a part of their field. Some natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes have seen epidemiologists working side-by-side with other healthcare workers to help the affected people. The terrorist attack on World Trade Centre and the anthrax release in 2001 also had epidemiologists working in the aftermath to help take care of the victims.
Requirements
The basic requirement for a career in epidemiology is a Master’s in Public Health, which will equip you with the basic methodologies to investigate the root cause of different health outcomes. Some advanced research positions may also require you to have a doctoral degree.
The skills required to work as an epidemiologist vary with the position you hold in your organization. Suppose your work includes doing research in a laboratory. In that case, you should know how to use different computer programs to calculate, compile and analyze data. You must have good analytical, organizational, reasoning, critical thinking, and research skills. Research work also requires you to be willing to travel, often to disease-ridden areas, putting yourself at risk.
A position in the public health sector will require you to have good computer literacy as you will have to make detailed reports about your findings. You will need excellent interpersonal and communication skills as you will have to present your findings to policymakers. You must be able to manage multiple projects at the same time.
Conclusion
The field of epidemiology focuses not only on infectious diseases but also on health outcomes from many different problems. An epidemiologist works to find the root cause of any health problem facing a community by collecting data about their symptoms and analyzing them. They work on figuring out how the disease spreads and what steps can be taken to control this spread. Numerous healthcare regulations are based on epidemiologists’ results, which directly aid in saving lives. To become an epidemiologist and work in the public sector, you must have a Master’s in Public Health, good communication and interpersonal skills, and sufficient computer literacy. A research job may also require a doctoral degree and good analytical and research capabilities.