The Diploma in Field Epidemiology prepares residents to detect, investigate and control disease outbreaks — and to build the surveillance systems that find them. Graduates leave equipped to take responsibility for applied epidemiology across Saudi Arabia's health system.
Core competencies
Field investigation and response
- Outbreak investigation — case definition, hypothesis testing, field data collection, control measures and formal reporting
- Disease surveillance — designing, operating and evaluating surveillance systems
- Infection prevention and control in hospital and healthcare settings
- Communicable and non-communicable disease epidemiology — from emerging pathogens to chronic disease risk factors
Analysis
- Biostatistical analysis — sampling, hypothesis testing and regression applied to public health data
- Data management — collection, cleaning, analysis and visualisation using epidemiological software
Communication and research
- Scientific writing — outbreak reports, surveillance summaries and peer-reviewed publications
- Scientific presentation — communicating findings to health authorities, scientific audiences and decision-makers
- Applied research — designing and conducting independent epidemiological studies from protocol to publication
Leadership and capacity building
- Public health programme management — supervision, administration and evaluation
- Training and mentoring — planning and delivering epidemiological training for health staff
Where graduates work
FETP graduates serve at every level of Saudi Arabia's public health system and beyond:
- Public Health Authority — national surveillance, preparedness and response
- Ministry of Health — national disease control programmes and outbreak response
- Regional Health Directorates — regional epidemiology and public health programmes
- Hospitals — infection prevention and control, hospital epidemiology
- Primary Health Care Centres — community-level surveillance and disease control
- Mass gathering health (Hajj and Umrah) — surveillance and outbreak response at one of the world's largest annual gatherings
- Points of entry and border health — ports, airports and quarantine services
- Saudi Food and Drug Authority — foodborne disease investigation and food safety
- Research centres and academic institutions — applied public health research and teaching
- International and regional bodies — WHO EMRO, EMPHNET and TEPHINET
Investigations led by our residents and graduates are published in the Saudi Epidemiology Bulletin.