How to Become a Epidemiologist

About Epidemiologist

Pursuing a career as an Epidemiologist is unlike any other profession in the healthcare industry as Epidemiology deals with the community as a whole, instead of one individual patient. The epidemiology career path is more investigative in nature, unlike other medical fields. Aspirants of the field would find themselves conducting surveys, understanding the living conditions of the people in a community, sources of diseases and illnesses, effects of diseases over a large scale and much more. Due to its investigative nature, pursuing a career as an epidemiologist requires candidates to have analytical and critical thinking skills, patience, mathematics reasoning, leadership skills and the ability to work under stressful conditions.

Epidemiologist in India Highlights

The candidates who are interested to make a career as Epidemiologist in India can check for the highlights below:

What Does an Epidemiologist Do?

Epidemiologist works in health care and a professional who works to identify the cause of diseases, how to control them, and stop them from spreading. Epidemiologists work in the health sector as public health professionals to improve health outcomes by using their Biolicial and medical experience. They work with a large population to observe the impact of a disease and how to prevent it.  

Usually, Epidemiologists work with state or national government agencies such as the National Institute of Health (NIH), Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), or other agencies. Some Epidemiologists also work within pharmaceutical companies where they are responsible to conduct original research with the help of the development of vaccines. 

Eligibility to become Epidemiologist

If you wish to pursue the career as an epidemiologist in India then it is necessary that you complete basic academic training and qualifications prior to pursuing a career in the field. Here are the eligibility criteria to pursue a career as an Epidemiologist in India:

• Basic academic qualification would be to have a B.Sc in Epidemiology or B.Sc or Bachelor of Public Health degree from a recognised university or college.

• Additional academic qualifications include an M.Sc or Master in Public Health/Epidemiology or even a PhD in Epidemiology from one of the many universities or colleges in India.

• Medical (MBBS, BDS, AYUSH) or Paramedical (Pharmacy, Nursing, or Allied Health Science course) graduates can also pursue a career in epidemiology.

• Graduates of Allied Sciences such as Sociology, Economics, Nutrition, Social Work, etc can also pursue a career in the field.

• Undergraduate or Postgraduate degrees of the above-mentioned fields are eligible to become an epidemiologist.

How to Become an Epidemiologist in India?

Students who are interested in becoming Epidemiologists in India can pursue the various courses and start preparing from scratch. Students can pursue a career as epidemiologists from school after the 12th class and even after graduation. Here are the details for preparing epidemiologists. 

School Level Preparation for Epidemiologists

Candidates who are interested in Science subjects and look forward to making a career as epidemiologists can start preparing from school. Students must have Physical Science, Science and Mathematics at a higher level. Students will be required to choose the subjects after the 12th class appropriately such as Science - Biology. 

How to Become an Epidemiologist in India After 12th Class

Candidates who are still school students and want to make a career as Epidemiologists can opt for the UG and PG courses. Students are required to complete the 12th class with Physics, Chemistry, and Biology subjects as compulsory subjects. 

UG Preparation: After the completion of the 12th class, students can prepare for the CUET and GATE exams to pursue undergraduate courses from the top universities. Students can choose a graduate degree such as a B.Sc in Epidemiology or a B.Sc or Bachelor of Public Health degree. 

UG Courses to Become an Epidemiologist

Here is the list of top undergraduate courses in the field of Public Health, Diagnose Control and Disease Research and Analysis.

PG Preparation: Once the students complete their graduation degree, they can opt for the post-graduation degree. Students can pursue M.Sc or Master in Public Health Epidemiology or even a PhD in Epidemiology from the best colleges in India.

Skills Required to Become an Epidemiologist

In order to be an epidemiologist, a certain set of skillsets, which include:

• Critical and Analytical thinking

• Mathematical and Statistical proficiency for analytical research

• Ability to work in a team but also Independently

• Ability to work under immense pressure

• Patience and Determination to search and find a conclusive result.

Types of Job Roles Epidemiologist

As an epidemiology graduate, you may find yourself applying for several job roles. Ranging from surveyors and statisticians to speciality epidemiologists, graduates will find a job role best suited for them in the current industry. Some of the more popular job roles applicable to an epidemiologist in India are as follows:

Community Health Workers: Community Health Workers are a crucial component of the field of epidemiology as they are responsible for connecting with the community, collecting, studying and researching various illness and diseases common to a community, provide health and safety lessons and strategies to the public and implement certain steps to promote better and healthier lifestyles.

Statisticians and Surveyors: As the name suggests, under such job roles, the main duty of an epidemiologist is to create surveys and questionnaires for the purpose of collecting appropriate data. Data collected through surveys and questionnaires help epidemiologists to further and deeply understand certain issues and root-causes of different medical illnesses in a community. With such data, new medical procedures, medicines and methods of providing healthcare to the public are studies and devised.

Speciality Epidemiologist: While epidemiologists do not work individually with separate patients, diseases and illnesses can be common across different communities. In order to further study, research and find authentic details of certain illnesses can help in fighting and curing people of certain diseases, which can also be fatal. Types of speciality epidemiologists include Infection Control Epidemiologist, Disaster Epidemiologist, Pharmaceutical Epidemiologist, Molecular Epidemiologist and much more.

Supervisory Epidemiologist: Like any other field, epidemiology requires personnel responsible for ensuring efficient and effective usage of assets and inventory, to produce quantified and quality data appropriate for the purpose of making the lives of the people better. Supervisory Epidemiologist is the post where such professionals look after and supervise the functioning of a team of epidemiologists. Further, Supervisory Epidemiologists carry out different tasks such as budget and personnel management, supervising the development of pharmaceuticals and other required managerial aspects of the field.

Academics: An underrated area in the field of epidemiology is pursuing academics or research in the field. While you can pursue a career as a teacher or professor distributing your knowledge of the field, a less-travelled path has been the field of research. You will be able to work with different organisations and students alike, furthering, your understanding of the field and publishing research papers which can further develop the field of epidemiology as an element of the healthcare industry.

Roles and Responsibilities of Epidemiologist

Candidates who take up a career as Epidemiologists are responsible for gathering and examining the clinical problems. Epidemiologists gather the data to examine it to cure the disease. Epidemiologists work with research centres or government agencies. Here are the roles and responsibilities of Epidemiologists. 

Diagnosing: Epidemiologists are responsible and in charge of detecting, diagnosing, and investigating patient conditions for infections, ailments, and injuries. They are also responsible to do research and analyze trends of diseases in order to make vaccines and offer therapies in the community.

Review medical history: Epidemiologists overlook the patient's medical records in order to know the changes or improvements in the health and condition. A patient's diagnosis is evaluated by an epidemiologist.

Research: Epidemiologists are responsible for researching the patterns and symptoms of various diseases. In order to find the causes, they research to understand the root causes and to provide solutions. 

Employment Sector/Industry for Epidemiologist

Pursuing a career as an epidemiologist can be possible in a number of different fields within the healthcare sector. Some of the employment opportunities include:

• Government and Private Hospitals

• Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Industries

• Government Health Departments

• National and Global Disease Control Centres

• National and Global Medical Research Centres

• NGOs

Responsibilities of an Epidemiologist

Some of the major responsibilities of an epidemiologist in India are as follows:

• Determine the cause and effects of diseases and disease-causing parasites

• Ascertain the modes of transmission of diseases and disease-carrying parasites

• Plan and undertake studies, research and investigations regarding human/animal diseases and the preventative methods that can be adopted

• Communicate and brainstorm ideas with Physicians, Policy-makers and other healthcare professionals with regards to the preventative and curative measures that need to be taken; and many more

Fees to Become an Epidemiologist

Those who want to become an Epidemiologist in India can check for the fees for different courses. 

• For students who want to pursue a certification or diploma course, the course can cost around 10,000 INR to 15,000 INR. 
• For the graduation courses in India for epidemiologists the course fee can range from 20,000 INR to 2,00,000 INR. 
• The higher education or post-graduation courses in India such as MSc in Epidemiology from top colleges can range between INR 30,000 and INR 2,50,000.

Top Recruiters of Epidemiologists

Once students complete their education of becoming Epidemiologists, they can find jobs in various companies, agencies, or the government sector. Here is the list of top recruiting companies. 

• State government 
• Local government 
• State hospitals
• Private hospitals 
• Colleges, universities and professional schools 
• Scientific research and development service centers 

Pay Scale/Salary of Epidemiologist

As per the trends that have been witnessed in the country, epidemiologists can earn variable salaries. These salaries depend on different factors such as job profile, company/ organisation/ institution of employment and much more. Listed below are some of the salaries that are earned by epidemiologists in India.

Note: The numbers and salaries denoted above are just for reference purposes, as the actual annual packages will differ from company to company and other variable factors.

Books & Study Material to Become Epidemiologist

One of the better methods of excelling in one’s area of expertise is through learning, reading and gaining as much knowledge as one can. Many experts from across the globe have been able to write down their opinions, thoughts, expertise and understanding of the field, which can be accessed by aspirants across the globe.

• Modern Epidemiology

• Basic Epidemiology by R Beaglehole

• Epidemiology for Public Health Practice Robert Friis

• Epidemiology in Medical Practice by David Barker

• Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen

Pros of becoming a Epidemiologist

• The work for each case you would receive would be dynamic in nature.

• The Investigative nature of the work profile provides a challenging aspect to the job

• Job satisfaction of an epidemiologist is high as the job allocated for each case is mostly result-oriented.

Cons of becoming a Epidemiologist

• Can be time-consuming and requires a lot of patience, as reaching a certain result or conclusion may require a lot of data collection, research, surveying and studying.

• Certain cases can be stressful as diseases can be fatal and spread fast across a community, which may require epidemiologists to work fast in order to reduce further losses.

• There are fixed work hours, however, the nature and importance of a case can lead to long and tedious working hours.