MA Medical Sciences Concentration Requirements

In addition to the required courses for the MA Medical Sciences degree students opting to complete a concentration must complete the following concentration specifc requirements.

Concentration in Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine

The renewed emphasis in most medical education programs on primary care demands that physicians become adept at the assessment, treatment and prevention of mental disorders as well as physical disease. Increasingly, health care professionals are being asked to become experts in human behavior since the key to health promotion is prevention. The mental health curricula which includes course work in the Counseling Techniques, Health Psychology, Group Treatment Modalities, Psychopathology, Neuroscience and the Addictions provides a unique opportunity for a mental health specialty for medical science students.

The two required courses for the Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Concentration are:

GMS MH 703 Counseling Techniques: Helping Relationships, Skills & Procedures
Prereq: Consent of instructor. Provides an overview of the skills and styles needed for building a healthy and therapeutic helping relationship, as well as techniques specific to a variety of psychological disorders and problems with living. Emphasis is placed on experiential exercises and skills-building. 3 cr, 1st sem.

GMS MS 707 Research and Evaluation
Prereq: Consent of instructor. Describes the language of experimentation, the development of psychological testing principles and the design of quasi-experimental and experimental research as they apply to counseling and therapy. 3 cr, 2nd sem. Students who elect the Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine concentration must also take two of the following courses:

GMS MH 704 Group Work Dynamics & Process
Prereq: Consent of instructor. Provides an overview of the basic principles of group treatment/counseling including how to recruit and treat group members, and modalities such as dynamic therapy groups, behavioral and skill-based groups for special populations. 3 cr, 2nd sem.

GMS MH 705 Psychopathology
Prereq: Consent of instructor. This course provides students with an introduction to the etiology, presentation and treatment of the major mental disorders as classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Students will become familiar with, identify and differentiate among a range of clinical presentations. 3 cr, 1st sem.

GMS MH 711 Health and Exercise Psychology
Prereq: Consent of instructor. This course has been designed to introduce students to central concepts of applied health and exercise psychology which draw interdependently from psychology, behavioral medicine, exercise physiology, and psychoneuroimmunology. Students are introduced to common behavioral health interventions, emphasizing exercise promotion, smoking cessation, weight control, and stress management as they apply to chronic disease and pain. 3 cr, 2nd sem.

GMS MH 812 Addictions
Prereq: Consent of instructor. This course provides the necessary knowledge base for understanding and treating addiction, emphasizing clinically useful knowledge and skills for recognizing and treating substance use disorders. Topics covered include: recognizing drug intoxication and withdrawal, assessment of Substance Use Disorders, Community Reinforcement Approach, Family Systems Treatment Models, Motivational Enhancement Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral/Skills Building approaches, 12-Step Recovery/Mutual Support Groups, and Addiction Medicine. 3 cr. 2nd sem.

GMS MS 703 Neuroscience
Prereq: consent of instructor. Integrated treatment of anatomy and physiology of the nervous system. In anatomy classes, brains and spinal cords are dissected and microscope slides examined to study cytology and projections of neurons. Other practical classes and demonstrations cover physiology, neurology, ophthalmology and otolaryngology. 1st sem, please refer to BUSM schedule of classes.
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GMS MH 709 Neuroscience for Mental Health Professionals
Preq: consent of instructor. This course is intended for M.A. and Ph.D. students specializing in the mental health delivery fields of mental health counseling, social work, and psychology. The course objective is to provide a foundation in the understanding of the central nervous system structure and function and the relationship of brain to behavior. 3 cr, 2nd sem.

Concentration in Clinical Research

Clinical research is research that involves humans as research subjects. This type of research is growing rapidly at many levels. The pharmaceutical and biotech industries are constantly discovering new disease “targets” and new compounds to attack these targets. The Human Genome Project will also expand the number of identifiable disease targets. In the medical device industry, the development of new and better materials for devices and the development of hybrid devices (implantable devices with a pharmaceutical or biotech component) has nearly limitless potential. These new technologies need to be tested in clinical research studies to document their safety and efficacy in humans. To conduct these clinical studies, we need well-trained professionals who know how to conduct human research. This need will continue to grow as the demand for clinical studies grows. The courses offered in the clinical research concentration provide a solid grounding in the technical and ethical aspects that make human research different from other types of research. Students will learn the elements of study design, trial management, human research regulations, and write a thesis about a clinical research topic.

Four courses (16 credits) are required to complete the concentration in Clinical Research. The three following courses are required:

GMS CI 640 Regulatory and Compliance Issues
Prereq: Premedical course requirements and consent of instructor. This course explains the regulatory requirements for healthcare products, that is, drugs, biologics, diagnostics, and devices. It is intended for those interested in regulatory affairs or in the clinical evaluation, development, manufacture, testing and/or commercialization of these products. Provides an in-depth review of the pertinent FDA regulations and guidelines and links these to the scientific and logistical activities involved in taking a product from research to market. Content and preparation of regulatory submissions, including an Investigation New Drug Application (IND), an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE), a New Drug Application (NDA), a Biologic License Application (BLA), a Pre-Market Approval Application (PMA), and a 510K Pre-Market Notification are described. International requirements for health care products are also reviewed. Gloff. 4 cr, 1st sem.

GMS CI 675 Designing Clinical Research Studies
Prereq: consent of instructor. This course covers important epidemiologic principles necessary for designing clinical research studies, various types of study designs with a focus on clinical trials, and practical issues related to designing clinical research studies. Topics include bias, confounding, developing the research question, defining an appropriate study population, choosing outcome measures, clinical research ethics and regulation, sample size determination, and statistical analysis issues. Students will design and present a clinical research study during the course. Fish and McNair, 4 cr., 1st sem.

GMS CI 790 Seminar in Clinical Research
Prereq: consent of instructor. The goal of this course is to provide students with experience in reading and evaluating recent basic science literature which may be pertinent to the origination and design of clinical trials. The course will be offered in a seminar format. It will consist of the evaluation of assigned readings of recent literature which may be relevant to the treatment of human diseases and which may be expected to lead to further animal experiments and culminate in human trials. This format will provide an opportunity to learn to critically evaluate basic science literature and to develop oral presentation skills essential to functioning as a manager of clinical trials. 2 cr, 2nd sem.

One of the following courses is required:

GMS CI 660 Good Clinical Practices in Clinical Research
Prereq: Consent of instructor. Introduces regulatory responsibilities of sponsors, monitors, and investigators conducting clinical trials. Practical information and exercises are designed on GCP compliance from an industrial perspective. Topics include: selecting qualified investigators; obtaining ethical approval for patients, and initiating sites successfully. Group discussions and guest speakers help students learn practical skills. Halloran. 4 cr, SS 2.

GMS MS 610 Ethico-legal Issues of Bioscience
Students examine the development and implementation of regulatory as well as ethical issues involved with conducting clinical trials. Topics include: use of human subjects, privacy and confidentiality, conflicts of interest, use of stem cells in research, federal laws affecting laboratories, genetic testing and gene therapy trials. There will also be discussions on landmark legal cases affecting laboratory scientists. Yashon. 4 cr, 1st sem.

Concentration in Medical Nutrition Sciences

Recent research on the genetic, environmental, behavioral and social determinants of human diseases has focused attention on the integral role of medical nutritional sciences in disease epidemiology. Advances in basic nutritional sciences have identified new mechanisms of biological action of the essential nutrients and other components of foods. There is increasing evidence of the efficacy of a wide variety of medical nutrition therapies for the prevention and treatment of many chronic and infectious diseases and their complications. The importance of nutrition in individual and population health throughout the human lifecycle, particularly into advanced age, is increasingly recognized. New methods in nutritional epidemiology have expanded research on the relationship between diet, nutritional status, disease risk and health outcomes. Evidence is emerging that public health nutrition interventions and health communication campaigns, consistent with national health policies, are effective in promoting and improving the nation’s health and that of vulnerable population subgroups. The concentration in Medical Nutrition Sciences will provide multidisciplinary training in nutrition sciences.

The following four courses are required to complete the concentration in Medical Nutrition Sciences:

GMS NU 600 Medical Nutrition Sciences
Prereq: Organic Chemistry, Basic Nutrition, Cell Biology, Human Physiology, and consent of instructor. This course examines the interrelationship between cellular molecular biology, nutrient metabolism, and human clinical nutrition. It emphasizes the metabolic basis of nutrition as related to the maintenance of optimal nutritional status as well as health and well-being throughout the human life cycle. 4 cr, 1st sem.

GMS NU 610 Research Methods in Medical Nutrition Sciences
Prereq: Medical Nutrition Sciences, Statistical Methods, consent of instructor. This course examines research approaches and techniques used in medical nutrition research in a variety of settings: basic and laboratory investigation; nutritional epidemiology; population and individualized clinical research trials; population-based nutrition promotion or educational campaigns; and community nutrition interventions and programs. 4 cr, 1st sem.

GMS NU 620 Research, Clinical and Public Policy Applications in Medical Nutrition Sciences
Prereq: Medical Nutrition Sciences, Human Physiology, consent of instructor. This course examines how researchers, clinicians and public policy experts translate nutrition research into practice-into new directions for basic and clinical research; into public health nutrition policies, programs, and social marketing campaigns; and into guidelines for clinical nutrition practice. 4 cr, 2nd sem.

GMS NU 700 Medical Nutrition Sciences Seminar
Prereq: Medical Nutrition Sciences, consent of instructor. This course provides a forum for discussion between students and expert nutrition faculty who are leading scientists in the field of medical nutrition sciences. The seminar will enable students to develop critical inquiry skills related to the design and interpretation of nutrition-related research. Var cr, 1st and 2nd sem.