No Immediate Answers Posted on November 30, 2007 Epidemiology research requires a different approach, says Vishwajit Nimgaonkar (bio).

So I think like any research, epidemiology starts with curiosity. So you need to be curious about something. In my case, I’m very curious about why people get diseases, psychiatric illnesses, why does it happen to a particular person and not to other people? I think once one has that curiosity, one then needs to get some basic training, one needs to understand the field and understand the tools that people use. So some coursework is obviously necessary.

Now my own philosophy is to try and get the coursework in the course of doing research. So if I was starting again, I would certainly try and get engaged in coursework, but at the same time try and find some research project that I could get involved in that would mesh with my questions, with my curiosity. And hopefully then I could contribute to the research in a bi-directional way. I learn from the research and the research gains from my hands and energy.

So epidemiology probably differs from other fields in a couple of ways. One is that it tends to be much more drawn out. So you don’t get your answers right away. I think that sets it apart from research that you might do in the lab for example with cell cultures or with animals.

So one has to be patient and be willing to wait several years to get the answers that one needs. It tends to be also focused on larger populations, so you cannot do this research with 10 people or 20 people. Very often you have to be very careful about whether your questions are being asked in the right setting. So again, one has to think carefully about the sample that one is going to collect, and then the information that one's going to collect, and how that information will address that question that one wants to answer.

The size of the population you need is always less than what you have. So that’s the guideline. So again it depends on the question that you’re asking. But typically studies involve hundreds if not thousands of people.

So it’s a little bit different from other fields of research. And this has certainly been a learning experience for us in psychiatric genetics, because we had thought that initially we could work with 100 or 200 people. And it has rapidly become clear that we are to work with thousands now. And I’m sure that I’ll be singing a different tune in five years' time.

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