Completed Courses 

This foundational course covers the application of epidemiologic procedures to the understanding of the occurrence and control of conditions such as infections and chronic diseases, mental disorders, community, and environmental health hazards, accidents, and geriatric problems in human populations. The course is critical to developing student competency in the foundational and practical utilities of epidemiology as a tool for disease surveillance and outbreak investigations, disease prevention and treatment. Part of the Master of Public Health degree program.

The course will introduce students to the main concepts of the public health field and the critical links between global health and social and economic development. Students will get an overview of the determinants of health, and how health status is measured. Students will also review the burden of disease, risk factors, and key measures to address the burden of disease in cost-effective ways. The course will review specific topics related to the most important communicable and non-communicable diseases as well as issues related to food distribution, reproductive health and other global major health concerns with an important focus on low- and middle-income countries and on the health of the poor. We will also discuss cross-cutting global health issues such as poverty and equity, human rights and ethical issues in public health, globalization and health and complex emergencies.

This foundational public health course provides a broad overview of the relationship between humans and their environment, and of the efforts to prevent or mitigate environmental threats. Students will be given an overview of the chemical, physical, and biological hazards present in our living and working environment and their effects on human health. The course is designed to acquaint students with the scientific and technical foundations of population health and examines both the practice of environmental health and problems addressed public health practitioners.

Covers behavioral and social science contributions to science disciplines, including psychology, sociology, and anthropology, will be reviewed and integrated with public health objectives and outcomes. Using a biopsychosocial framework, the role of social, psychological, and behavioral factors in health and illness are emphasized.

The course provides students with fundamental frameworks for monitoring and evaluation in global health practice. The course provides an overview of different types of program evaluation, including needs assessment, formative research, process evaluation, monitoring of outputs and outcomes, and impact assessment. Students gain practical experience through a series of case-studies involving the use of a conceptual framework in the design of an evaluation plan, that includes development of indicators, analysis of computerized service statistics, and impact measurement. The course addresses experimental, quasi-experimental, and non-experimental study designs, including the strengths and limitations of these designs in population and global health practice.

The topics include descriptive statistics, probability, standard probability distributions, sampling distributions, point and confidence interval estimation, hypothesis testing, power and same size estimation, one and two-sample parametric and non-parametric methods for analyzing continuous or discrete data, simple linear regression, logistic regression and other multivariate methods. Students will use a statistical software package for data management and statistical analyses. STA 2023 or equivalent is a pre-requisite for this course.

This course introduces students to the history of public health, the structure of the public health system and the various sectors of public health practice, in order to gain an understanding of the complex factors that determine the health status of a community. Lectures will draw from the public health field, but also related disciplines such as behavioral sciences, healthcare management, medical ethics, and social work. National state, and local level practices will be analyzed, as well as the role that law and government play in the public's health. The course is also intended to stimulate student interest in other public health courses and program offerings.

An overview of scientific principles of public health and their application to public health problems with significant state, national and international impact. It is recommended that students have at least one semester of a college science such as, biology or a comparable course before enrolling.

The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of major ethical principles and theories applied to global health, and how culture influences ethical decision-making in health resource allocation. Students will examine some of the primary theories and principles in global health practice and research ethics including virtue, deontology, utilitarian, autonomy, justice, beneficence, and nonmaleficence. The course explores prominent global health issues to build greater knowledge and understanding of global health ethics as a vital tenant of effective decision-making to promote optimal health. Topics will address broad ethical issues related to pandemic preparedness, ethical human subject research in developing countries, human rights, gender-based violence, resource allocation, and the effects of globalization on health and quality of life within countries.

This course provides an overview of computer applications software for public health and health-related data. Fundamentals of data collection, data mining, statistical analysis, interpretation, and reporting of results are covered. Students gain hands-on experience in data management and analysis using real-world public health and health-related data. Enrollment in this course assumes a basic understanding of statistical reasoning and epidemiological experience. Note: Ideally students must have successfully completed PHC 6000, PHC 6300, PHC 5410, and PHC 5050 or equivalents before enrolling in this course.

The course explores general principles of planning, management, and evaluation of health care programs, policies and interventions implemented by public and private organizations. The goal of the course is to ensure a broad understanding of critical issues concerning the organization, delivery, and financing of public health and health care in the United States and examines the role of private, community-based organizations, federal, state, and local governments in ensuring healthy communities. The basic conceptual frameworks underlying healthcare decision making and assessment of the financing, organization, outcomes and delivery of healthcare services are presented.

An overview graduate level course of the methods and strategies for the prevention and control of infectious diseases within a population setting and the application of these tools in public health programs to achieve an epidemiologic impact on disease reduction, elimination or eradication. Methods covered in the course are those applied to population settings and address both vaccine and non-vaccine preventable diseases of public health significance.