Course Catalog and Curriculum Overview

This course covers statistical concepts and methods used in analysis, interpretation and application of data generated by the various domains of public health, such as clinical medicine, health policies, and health economics.

This course covers the theoretical and practical knowledge and skills required for understanding patterns of disease and injury in human populations and applying this understanding to control of health problems.

This course covers core theoretical and practical knowledge and skills that are utilized in preventing or controlling the diseases, injuries, and disabilities due to interactions between people and their environment.

This course covers the public health practices concerned with delivery, quality and costs of health care for individuals and populations.

The Master of Public Health online course entitled “Social and Behavioral Aspects of Public Health” is foundational to the understanding of how human behavior affects healthcare—in both positive and negative ways. In the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, we have learned many lessons about public health, but mainly that our country must place more emphasis on population-based health measures, emergency and infectious disease preparation and response, and creating public policies to further research in community medicine.

The medical profession is becoming increasingly aware of the importance of social and behavioral determinants of health, particularly as they apply to chronic disease states, population-based outcomes studies, and individual patient care protocols. Public health interventions, based on broad-based clinical trials, have great promise in reducing the impact of disease states on individuals and larger populations. The emphasis in public health for interventions is now understood to be primarily community-based, with the engagement of all resources at play in the health of patients—physicians, care facilities, community support systems, access to care, and equity of care.

In the eight-week Community-Oriented Primary Care (COPC) course, students learn about the model for integrating primary care services into communities and targeting health-related concerns with active community participation. COPC is the marriage of public health and primary care. These concepts dovetail nicely with the practice of medicine, no matter what the specialty, and build upon the principles of social accountability.

Learning about COPC builds the health care professionals’ capacity to form partnerships which support and further the health of their patients and the broader population, and ultimately increases the future impact on their community of practice.

This course, entitled “War and Public Health,” introduces student physicians to the extensive public health consequences of war and conflict on different populations, including refugees, humanitarian responses to war, the role of public health workers in supporting response efforts, and measures to prevent the escalation of violence. This course also explores the public health consequences of past wars, including the Vietnam war, the Iraq war, and the Democratic Republic of Congo war. It also focuses on the present Ukraine- Russian conflict and the double burden posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The course draws on the literature from various credible sources, including a textbook, the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United Nations, and other professional and academic sources.

According to the World Health Organization, “Nearly a quarter of the global population currently lives in settings affected by conflict, displacement, and natural disasters. Combined with weak national health systems, these settings make it difficult to deliver basic health services where they are most needed and would make the biggest difference” (2019). The consequences of war are devastating and can have a profound and immediate effect on public health. The outbreak of war often leads to mass displacement of people and the destruction of infrastructure and medical facilities. This can lead to a breakdown in public health systems, an increase in communicable diseases, and mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression.

During the eight-week Program Planning and Evaluation (PPE) course, students learn how to utilize practical tools and concepts to become competent community health program planners, savvy consumers of evaluation reports, and prudent users of the services of evaluation consultants.

This course utilizes program theory–a conceptual model of PPE that reinforces the cyclical nature of the process. Each module references levels of the public health pyramid, reinforcing the social-ecological and multi-level nature of health promotion and public health planning. In addition to learning foundational procedures for planning, implementing, and evaluating the impact of public health programs, students examine and discuss skills for building effective interdisciplinary and interprofessional teams essential to success in developing and evaluating meaningful public health programs.

This course provides a basic study of social, economic, political and cultural influences that impact the health of individuals and families in rural communities. Designed for health professionals, this course focuses on improving health status and developing culturally appropriate interventions and services in rural settings.

This course covers the major determinants of health and disease from a global perspective and prepares learners for professional practice in the field of global health.

This course provides a basic introduction to the science of climate change, an overview of how climate change is affects public health, strategies to predict and communicate climate change, and suggestions on how we can adapt to and mitigate the effect of climate change.

This course provides a basic introduction on the concepts of nutritional science. Students will explore nutritional issues from a public health perspective.

The Applied Practice Experience is a 3-credit course required of all learners in the MPH program. MPH learners must complete an approved, planned, and supervised APE, which requires hands-on engagement with public health professionals in community-based, governmental, non-profit, for-profit, industrial, rural, international, or other public health setting. This experience allows learners to gain practical experience in addressing real world problems that promote social- and justice-based community responsive care to enhance safety and improve community health outcomes. 

The Integrative Learning Experience (ILE) is a 3-credit course completed after the APE, which enables students to demonstrate synthesis of selected MPH Foundational and Global Health Concentration Competencies through a high-quality written final product focusing on at least two deliverables that may take several forms such as but not limited to needs assessments, program design/evaluation, grant proposals, applied research, training manuals, videos, podcasts, websites, surveys, health promotion, etc.