Curriculum Requirements

Master of Public Health, M.P.H.

Major Requirements

Public Health Credits:
PHLT 620 Biostatistics 3
Introductory course in biostatistics is intended for graduate-level students of medicine or public health and provides foundational theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. This course is one of the core components of the public health graduate program and is appropriate for any students intending to fulfill degree requirements. It is also appropriate as an elective for students of medicine or other related fields. This course is appropriate for graduate-level students who are interested in an overview of the field of biostatistics and its relevance to the effective maintenance and promotion of public health.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 622 Social and Behavioral Sciences 3
This introductory course in environmental health is intended for graduate-level students of medicine or public health and provides foundational theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. This course is one of the core components of the public health graduate program and is appropriate for any students intending to fulfill degree requirements. It is also appropriate as an elective for students of medicine or other related fields. This course provides an introduction to the study of environmental health, exposure assessment, toxicology, risk assessment and risk management, and susceptibility and vulnerability in environmental health. Through online study, peer-to-peer activities, mentored discussions, and case studies from a regional to global scale, students will develop foundational skills and knowledge in environmental health and current environmental health issues.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 624 Environmental Health 3
This course provides an introduction to the study of social and behavioral sciences, including the basic theories, concepts, and models in health promotion; the decision-making process in public health interventions using health promotion models; ethics in public health and health promotion; planning, implementation, and evaluation of interventions; and the relationships among social determinants of health and health promotion.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 626 Epidemiology 3
This introductory course in epidemiology is intended for graduate-level students of medicine or public health and provides foundational theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. This course is one of the core components of the public health graduate program and is appropriate for any students intending to fulfill degree requirements. It is also appropriate as an elective for students of medicine or other related fields. This course provides an introduction to the field of epidemiology, including measures of mortality and morbidity; association, causation, and risk factors; study designs and critical evaluation of evidence; screening and surveillance; and the application of epidemiologic evidence to practice and policy.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 628 Health Policy and Management 3
This course provides an introduction to the study of health policy and management, including the principles, structures, and functions of health systems; the roles of public and private parties; risk management and ethics; health economics evaluations; health information systems; program planning and evaluation; and communication and leadership strategies.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 632 Public Health Leadership 3
This course is one of the fundamental components of the public health graduate program and is appropriate for any students intending to fulfill degree requirements. Leadership is one of the essential courses with cross-cutting themes for interdisciplinary public health professionals. The leadership course will teach current and aspiring public health leaders to apply leadership principles in a public health context. It will provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to lead teams, projects, organizations and systems in eliminating inequities, improving conditions and fostering change in local and global communities. Skills in public health leadership are needed at every level in clinical, community based and workplace settings, and hiring new talent with fresh perspectives is a priority for nongovernmental and governmental clinical and public health organizations. The course will draw on a variety of cases from a range of public health leadership situations in diverse settings and will incorporate many of the other disciplines taught in the MPH program.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 633 Global Public Health 3
This course is one of the core components of the public health graduate program and is appropriate for any students intending to fulfill degree requirements. It is also appropriate as an elective for students of medicine or other related fields. This course provides as introductory survey of global health, with the primary aim to engage and inspire students about the opportunities and challenges of global health. Using the lens of health equity, it provides an overview of many current issues in global public health and frameworks to address them. Interested students can follow this course with more specific in-depth courses in areas such as research methods, global health policy, program planning, human rights and others.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 634 Public Health Practice 3
The Public Health Practice course introduces students to a broad view of public health and the basic concepts underlying current public health practice at the local, state, national, and global levels. Students learn about the determinants of health and public health services to address these determinants, the population health approach, public health finance and infrastructure, public health law, evidence-based public health practice, tools for population health work, and other timely topics in public health practice. Case studies are included to help students apply the art and science of public health practice.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 635 Population and Rural Health 3
This course is one of the core components of the public health graduate program and is appropriate for any students intending to fulfill degree requirements. It is also appropriate as an elective for students of medicine or other related fields. This course will focus on preparing healthcare professionals with the foundational skills needed to work in teams to effectively collaborate and coordinate care in population and rural health management. Special emphasis will be on identification and stratification of populations at risk; evidence-based care planning, care coordination and patient engagement, and data analytics and reporting of outcomes. National and international standards and initiatives will form the foundation to the course.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 636 Public Health Communication 3
This course is one of the core components of the public health graduate program and is appropriate for any students intending to fulfill degree requirements. It is also appropriate as an elective for students of medicine or other related fields. This advanced course will provide a broad overview and deep exploration into the evolving body of relevant health communication research, theory, and practice, examining the powerful influences of communication on the delivery of care and the promotion of health. The course will take an action research perspective to the study of health communication, where our overarching educational goal will be to learn how to use strategic health communication to enhance health outcomes and reduce health disparities, locally and globally.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 637 Program Planning and Evaluation 3
This introductory will explore the core concepts, methods and values of public health program planning and evaluation, including community needs assessment, writing objectives, designing health promotion programs, processes and outcome evaluation. The course will provide an overview of concepts, tools, data collection, analysis methods and designs used to evaluate health promotion programs. Examples from substance abuse prevention, violence, family planning and reproductive health programs.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 638 Systems Thinking in Public Health 3
This course provides an introduction to the theoretical concepts and foundations of systems thinking and knowledge translation, summarizes evidence and provides an understanding of issue polarization and of the barriers and facilitators to evidence-based policy, describes traditional research and policy-making processes and how knowledge translation can potentially alter those processes, and introduces knowledge translation approaches and tools such as stakeholder analysis, political context analysis, and priority setting analysis.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 655 Public Health Practicum 3
Students will be eligible to undertake a Public Health Practicum at a preapproved supervised site in the first or second summer of their coursework. During the 2-4 week period students will be oriented and integrated into the health center, the ancillary operations, or preventative health project relevant to the individual's professional background and interests to deliver health services under the supervision of the onsite faculty or other designated community preceptor. Students will be expected to identify and involve themselves with an ongoing preventative health initiative in the first week of the experience, engage the projects objectives and implement proposals in cooperation with the project coordinator. By integrating oneself in the clinical and/or preventative health or policy projects of a resource-poor environment, a student will expectantly understand the humanitarian and altruistic ideals that form the principles of public health.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
    Total: 39 Credits
 
Electives (choose three courses from the following) Credits:
PHLT 640 Disaster Preparedness and Response 3
This introductory course in disaster preparedness and response is intended for graduate-level students of medicine or public health and provides foundational theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. This course is one of the core components of the public health graduate program and is appropriate for any students intending to fulfill degree requirements. It is also appropriate as an elective for students of medicine or other related fields. This course is designed to provide training and education on public health preparedness and response to largescale emergencies and disasters. You will be introduced to the knowledge, skills, capabilities, and behaviors required for competency in public health preparedness and emergency response. This course will build upon and reinforce basic public health skills and knowledge in epidemiology and biostatistics as we explore surveillance, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery from natural and human-caused emergency events.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 642 Climate Change and Health 3
This introductory course in climate change and health is intended for graduate-level students of medicine or public health and provides foundational theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. This course is one of the core components of the public health graduate program and is appropriate for any students intending to fulfill degree requirements. It is also appropriate as an elective for students of medicine or other related fields. This course provides a basic introduction to the science of climate change, an overview of how climate change affects public health, strategies to predict and communicate climate change, and suggestions on how we can adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. It also offers an opportunity with globally available peers and mentors to practice techniques to reduce these effects.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 644 Public Health Nutrition 3
This introductory course in public health nutrition is intended for graduate-level students of medicine or public health and provides foundational theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. This course is one of the core components of the public health graduate program and is appropriate for any students intending to fulfill degree requirements. It is also appropriate as an elective for students of medicine or other related fields. This course analyzes major nutritional deficiencies and other emerging nutrition related disorders, their prevention and control. It also deals on the national and international nutrition policies and regulatory guidelines. Furthermore, intervention strategies for nutrition problems or issues and current food nutrition issues and their implications to public health will be studied.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 646 Pharmacoepidemiology 3
This introductory course in pharmacoepidemiology is intended for graduate-level students of medicine or public health and provides foundational theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. This course is one of the core components of the public health graduate program and is appropriate for any students intending to fulfill degree requirements. It is also appropriate as an elective for students of medicine or other related fields. This course introduce students to most important issues and career options in pharmacoepidemiology; emphasize how non-experimental studies on drugs can draw from standard epidemiologic techniques and explore the ways in which drugs present unique research challenges and opportunities including drug approval process, post marketing surveillance, medication adherence and drug safety systems.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
PHLT 650 Public Health Informatics 3
This course in public health informatics is intended for graduate-level students of medicine or public health and provides foundational theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. The course is one of the core components of the public health graduate program and is appropriate for any students intending to fulfill degree requirements. It is also appropriate as an elective for students of medicine or other related fields. This course provides students a formal framework in which to discuss contemporary topics in health informatics. Topics include: interoperability and health information exchange, usability, regulation, workflow, health reform secondary use, technology-enhanced computation, and mHealth. Assumes that students have at least a basic understanding of health informatics through prior coursework or professional experience.

Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3
    Total: 9 Credits
 
Total Program Credits = 48