A training Center for future Pharmacoepidemiologists

What is Pharmacoepidemiology?

Pharmacoepidemiology is the study of the health effects of drugs and other medical products in populations, and the application of this knowledge to improve health. It is the basic science underlying the public health practice of medical product safety surveillance. Pharmacoepidemiologists apply the research methods of epidemiology (e.g., randomized trials, cohort studies, case-control studies, self-controlled designs) to the study of pharmacology (e.g., determinants of beneficial and adverse drug effects, effects of genetic variation on drug effect, dose-response relationships, duration-response relationships, drug-drug interactions, effects of non-adherence). Pharmacoepidemiologists also evaluate programmatic efforts to improve medication use.

CPeRT Mission

The Center for Pharmacoepidemiology Research and Training (CPeRT) was founded in 2012 (although Penn faculty member have been conducting pharmacoepidemiology research since the early 1980s) and is based in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CCEB).

Its mission is to:

• Provide an intellectual home for pharmacoepidemiology at Penn
• Promote the conduct of applied and methodologic pharmacoepidemiology research
• Foster training of the next generation of pharmacoepidemiologists
• Expand number of Penn faculty members performing pharmacoepidemiology research