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Writing Instructions for Case Studies:
Select a past disaster of interest or relevance to you from the Case Study Inventory.
Prepare a case study report and include epidemiological data (on morbidity, mortality and cost [infrastructure damage]) and identify key aspects of the response that you think positively or negatively impacted morbidity, mortality, and cost. Your report should include the sections outlined below. Use the sub-headings shown. Keep in mind that the case study report is a chronicle of the event, so please stick to the facts. For an example of what these should look like please see examples attached.
See former student Case Study Reports.
Case Study Report sections:
a. Introduction: one or two sentences describing the context of the case, for example: The Tokyo subway sarin gas attack in 1995 led to 12 deaths, more than 1000 injuries, and 5000 emergency medical evaluations. It led to a reexamination of the response to chemical disaster events and ultimately resulted in a number of new planning and response initiatives.
b. Facts of the Case: Person, place, time and cost if available (e.g., number of fatalities, exposures, how much damage to buildings and infrastructure and cost of damage, and cost of response etc.). Succinctly describe the event in complete sentences.
c. Epidemiological aspects of the event: Describe the study methods that were used for the event and the major measures of association (e.g., RR, OR, AOR) (i.e., for observational studies) and analytic approaches the authors used to analyze the data (e.g., regression models, Cox proportionate models, etc.). Describe any potential sources of biases, threats to validity or sources of confounding. State how authors dealt with missing data, if it was discussed in the paper.
d. Management of the event: briefly describe the public health response (remembering that medical care from this perspective is subsumed under public health) to the event and how effectively you thought it was managed, discuss what gaps in preparedness were identified, summarize lessons learned for improvements you would recommend or that were actually implemented in the aftermath of the event.
e. Communications of the event: If applicable, discuss the public communications surrounding the event (during, and immediately after) and your thoughts about how well that was managed.
f. Summarize: in a few closing sentences conclude your final “take away” message regarding this event.
Formatting Instructions for case studies:
One preferred, two pages maximum length.
Text: Arial font, 11 pt.
Spacing: single
Header should include your name and date.
References: no more than 5-10, in AMA style (number your references using superscript), listed on a separate, third page. You can cite the popular press.
Provide a title and add a colon to it with the words, “A Case Study.” For example: Sarin Gas, Tokyo: A Case Study.