MPH in Global Health Curriculum

SPHHS 605-Health Equity & the Foundations of Public Health Practice-The purpose of this course is to introduce you to graduate level public health practice through a health equity lens. Together with SPHHS 615, this course will allow you to grapple with important questions of racism, justice and health to understand the many complex factors that contribute to the health of our nation and its peoples. You will be encouraged to think about the ways in which you will accomplish the mission of public health (i.e., assuring the conditions in which everyone can be healthy) through critical self-reflection of your own perspectives on the health of the population.  

SPHHS 606-Leading Change: Policy, Advocacy, and Ethics-The purpose of this course is to introduce you to graduate level public health practice through a health equity lens. Together with SPHHS 615, this course will allow you to grapple with important questions of racism, justice and health to understand the many complex factors that contribute to the health of our nation and its peoples. You will be encouraged to think about the ways in which you will accomplish the mission of public health (i.e., assuring the conditions in which everyone can be healthy) through critical self-reflection of your own perspectives on the health of the population. 

SPHHS 615-Epidemiology & Biostatistics Part A: Description, Estimation, and Exposures-This course is designed to give you an integrated introduction to epidemiology and biostatistics.  These two disciplines are closely related and together they provide public health workers with the skills needed to investigate disease and determine its effects in the population, and what its possible causes may be, as well as how to generate and evaluate evidence that will help with these goals.  We will be working hands-on to learn to use the tools of epidemiology and biostatistics to describe populations, estimate the impact of disease, and evaluate the effects of exposures. 

SPHHS 616-Epidemiology & Biostatistics Part B: Evidence, Threats, and Action-This course is designed to give you an integrated introduction to epidemiology and biostatistics.  These two disciplines are closely related and together they provide public health workers with the skills needed to evaluate threats to the evidence they and others have collected as well as how to design interventions to help improve public health.  We will be working in a hands-on way to learn to use the tools of epidemiology and biostatistics to assess threats to evidence, design interventions, and assemble the tools from across the public health curriculum by designing a public health program. 

HPP 580-Delivering & Strengthening of Global Healthcare Systems-This course provides an understanding of health systems design, administration, and functions. The course will review how health systems are created, managed, funded, and administered. The course will also make basic comparisons of health systems of selected countries and discuss the importance of human resources for health, health management information systems, and critical elements of health systems strengthening. The course examines complex challenges of measuring health system performance as well as lessons from successful examples and explores potential strategies for strengthening the health systems of selected low and middle-income countries. 

HPP 583-Global Health Foundations-This course provides an interdisciplinary perspective on key global health issues that impact the health and well-being of people globally. The course considers the relevance of politics, economics, culture, and health behaviors in shaping health. Students get an overview of fundamental cross-cutting themes contextualizing contemporary global health issues. Additional focuses consist of leading causes of disease burden in low- and middle-income countries and successful examples highlighting innovative solutions to global health problems, including community-level activities, public-private partnerships, use of technology, and national and international collaborations. The course also reviews the past, present, and expected future directions of global health. The course exposes students to opportunities in global health research and programs. Students work on global health issues of interest during the class sessions, post-session exercises, and assignments. They will critically analyze those issues and interventions initiated to address them. Through this process, students will learn to draw conceptual frameworks to organize information on global health issues, assess what is known and not, ask questions, and seek strategies to find answers. 

EPI 633-Communicable Disease Epidemiology-Review of selected infectious diseases; emphasis on current theories of distribution, transmission, and control. 

EHS 565-Environmental Health Practices-Concepts of control methods used by environmental health practitioners.  Topics include water, wastewater, solid wastes, food sanitation, vector control, housing, and accident control measures.  

HPP 560-Globalization and Public Health-This seminar will identify the linkages of globalization and human health and examine the positive and negative impacts globalization may pose for the public health, safety and security of the world’s population. We will analyze different theoretical and empirical research methods used in confronting a range of global public health issues and policies today. The analyses of globalization perspectives will purposefully cross disciplines and expand upon the broader context of global public health governance and the interconnectedness of human health to world affairs. Topics of discussion will include opportunities and threats of globalization associated with public funding limits, new technologies and health sector reform; demographic and health transitions; transportation and trade (associated with such things as food, pharmaceuticals, and tobacco); travel and tourism; and the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases. 

SPHHS 698M-Practicum in Global Health- The Practicum offers MPH students the opportunity to design a unique experience and apply the theories, principles and methods presented in the Public Health Core to address very real public health concerns. This course satisfies the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) requirements for the MPH Applied Practice Experience. 

SPHHS 681-Capstone in Global Health-The capstone project is the final requirement for completion of the MPH degree and serves as the final examination, replacing a thesis or oral examination.  The final major paper provides evidence of the student’s ability to synthesize and integrate knowledge acquired during the degree program and practicum.  

These are examples and not all inclusive of the elective offerings.

HPP 507-Violence as a Public Health Issue-This course examines violence from a public health perspective in the United States and globally.  It covers topics from interpersonal to structural violence and approaches to violence prevention. 

HPP 614-International Health, Population, and Development-The course will examine current global health issues particularly within the context of development and international health policy.  The questions covered include: How do developing countries grapple with forces such as globalization, debt, and inequality?  What roles do governments, international organizations, and multi-national corporations play in development?  How are community and participatory development promoted?  Other topics include international trade, political development, inequality, poverty, culture and social change, gender, and international cooperation. 

HPP 636-Global Maternal and Child Health-This course is designed to give students an overview of the issues pertinent to the health of mothers and children globally. Topics will include morbidity and mortality, antenatal care, labor/delivery, family planning, child health, nutrition, and HIV/AIDS. The health status of mothers and children is an important indicator of the health of a nation, so in this course, the major maternal child health indicators of developed countries will be contrasted with those of underdeveloped countries.