PUBLIC HEALTH

Coursework and Curriculum

In keeping with the interdisciplinary focus of the DPH, all students are required to take courses in urban public health, courses within a specialization area, at least one course outside of public health, and additional courses in research methods, theory or public health practice. Course selection is determined through consultation between the student and the faculty adviser.

Core Courses

All students are required to complete three core courses in urban health theory and methods (9 credits): PH800 Cities, Society, and Health, PH801 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Urban Health Research and PH802 Advanced Methodological and Ethical Issues in Urban Health Research. Typically, the first course will be taken in the first semester of enrollment, the second in the second semester, and the third in the semester before taking the first doctoral exam.

PH800 Cities, Society, and Health: This course presents an ecological, multilevel approach to the study of urban health and brings together public health and social science disciplines to examine the impact of city living on population health.

PH801 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Urban Health Research: This course prepares students to investigate causes and solutions to complex urban health problems by bringing together concepts, theories and methods from a variety of disciplines that contribute to our understanding of urban health. It also focuses on research that contributes to reducing health disparities and promoting well-being in urban communities.

PH802 Advanced Methodological and Ethical Issues in Urban Health Research: This course covers a breadth of conceptual, statistical and mathematical modeling methods that can be applied in students’ doctoral-level research projects and throughout their careers. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are covered. Examples from environmental and occupational health, epidemiology, health policy and management, community health and other disciplines are presented in order to create an interdisciplinary learning environment.

Public Health Leadership Development Project

The Public Health Leadership Development sequence is designed to ensure that students attain the range of managerial and communication skills necessary for effective leadership in public health. Courses in this sequence include:

PH892 Public Health Leadership Development Fieldwork: Through the field project, students are required to identify and make a substantial contribution to solving a public health problem. The emphasis is on the identification of well-defined and focused problems for which it is possible to develop solutions within one to two years. As previously noted, the majority of DPH students will be employed full-time in professional public health positions. Where applicable, faculty may permit a student to select a field placement at his or her current place of employment, provided that the project is designed to impart new skills; the on-site preceptor is not the regular supervisor; and the project is carried out in a unit or department that is different from the one in which the student is employed. Students who enter the DPH program with five or more years of prior leadership experience in public health or a related field may apply to meet this requirement through portfolio review. To apply for a portfolio review by the Curriculum and Examinations Committee and the awarding of up to six credits, students must submit documentation of their professional experience and leadership competencies (e.g., evidence of having developed programs or implemented policies and/or of the impact of policies they developed). The DPH Curriculum and Examinations Committee will develop the specific criteria and procedures for portfolio evaluation and waivers.

PH893 Public Health Leadership Development Seminar: The Public Health Leadership Seminar introduces students to theories and models of leadership and helps students to analyze their own strengths and weaknesses as leaders. Using a case study approach, students analyze successful and unsuccessful examples of public health leadership.

Public Health Leadership Development Elective: In consultation with their faculty adviser, students will complete 3 additional credits as part of the Leadership Development Project to achieve their desired individual competencies in this area. This can include elective course credits (e.g., Public Health: Public Health and Public Policy; Social Welfare: Theories of Change for Social Work Practice; Political Science: Concepts and Strategies in International Human Rights; Sociology: Contentious Politics and Large-Scale Transformations) or sponsored independent research with a faculty member. The objective of this component is to develop broader knowledge of change strategies at one or more levels of organization.

Dissertation Research

Courses in the Research Sequence are as follows:

PH 890 Research Seminar I: The first semester research seminar focuses on preparation of the dissertation prospectus (project proposal). Topics to be covered include: selection and refinement of a dissertation topic, literature reviews, project design, site and sample selection and access, plans for data collection and analysis, selection of a faculty adviser and committee, dissertation format and procedures, development of a realistic timetable for the completion of the dissertation and the protection of human subjects.

PH891 Research Seminar II: The second semester research seminar focuses on dissertation project implementation and data analysis. Students enrolled in this course will present implementation problems and data analysis plans from their own dissertation research, and provide critiques and constructive feedback their peers.

Specialization Tracks

Students apply to one of 4 specific tracks:

Community, Society and Health (CSH) Track. (Students can select a concentration in Public Health Nutrition within this track)
Epidemiology (EPI)
Environmental and Occupational Health (EOH)
Health Policy and Management (HPM) (Fall 2010)

The unique mission of each specialization track, the proposed curriculum, and a description of proposed new DPH courses are summarized below.

Community, Society, and Health (CSH)

Mission:
The CSH Track prepares researchers and public health practitioners who can:

Advance scientific understanding of the social determinants of health, health behavior, the delivery of health services and health policy.
Lead, plan, manage, and evaluate community health interventions in urban settings.
Draw on the methods and theories from multiple disciplines to design and implement research studies on health and urban populations.
Formulate, analyze and advocate for policies that promote health and prevent disease.
Teach students and professionals about the social determinants of health, health behavior, health interventions, health policy, and health disparities in urban settings.

Curriculum:
The core curriculum in CSH includes courses on social dimensions of health and research methodology. Students complete a total of 21 credits (7 courses) in their specialty in addition to the 9 credits in the Urban Public Health core, 12 credits of public health leadership development, 6 credits of the research seminar and 12 credits of dissertation research. All CSH students take PH 810 and 811 and five other courses in research methods or public health practice, selected with their faculty adviser. Students in the nutrition concentration are required to take PH 812, 813, 814 and SOC 828 to meet this requirement. The core curriculum in this track includes the following courses:

PH810 Community Health Interventions: Theory and Methods: This course prepares students to lead research/intervention teams that plan, implement and evaluate community health interventions in urban settings. The prerequisites are at least two Master’s level courses in program development or evaluation and at least one year of work experience in community health settings. These requirements can be waived with permission of instructor for students who bring other relevant experiences to the course.

PH811 Social and Behavioral Dimensions of Health: Theory and Methods: This course prepares students to understand the impact of social structures and social environments on health and health behavior. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the course examines the contributions of sociology, anthropology, economics, psychology, history and political science to the study of health and health behavior.

PH812 Nutritional Epidemiology: This course teaches concepts and principles used in nutritional epidemiology. It provides skills required to critically evaluate dietary assessment methodology and reviews current topics in nutritional epidemiology. In addition, the role of nutrition in health and how this applies to public health is discussed. This course is required for students in the Nutrition Concentration, and can also be used to fulfill the requirements for an advanced quantitative or qualitative GC or PH methods course for students in other tracks.

PH813 Nutrition Education, Programs, and Practice: This course covers assessment of nutrition information needs of selected population groups. Planning, implementation, and evaluation of nutrition education programs at the local, state and national levels, including the use of formative research and social marketing, are discussed. The social ecological approach designed to integrate behavior change strategies with environmental-based interventions is introduced. This course is required for students in the Nutrition Concentration, and can be also be used to fulfill the requirements for a GC or PH course, focusing on a specific health problem or population group.

PH814 Food Politics and Policies: This is a policy course that examines the effects of the food industry and government on diet-related disease, and on health promotion and disease prevention. Most readings have a strong political content. Central themes include: government action versus individual liberty, the contradictions of government support and opposition to certain policies, the role of litigation, and the importance of institutions (e.g., bureaucracy, Congress, the media). This course can also be used to fulfill the elective requirements for students in the Health Policy and Management Track.

Soc 828 Food, Culture and Society: This course explores major issues in foodways, focusing on preparation and consumption, through readings and discussions as well as through the development of a culturally-informed public health nutrition initiative and fieldwork exploring a specific cultural food tradition. Theoretical frameworks include the food voice, cultural studies, political economy, and symbolic interactionism. Materials are drawn from across the social sciences and applied to public health.

Epidemiology (EPI)

Mission:
The EPI track prepares graduates to work as senior epidemiologists in research, teaching and public health leadership positions. Graduates of the EPI track will serve as epidemiologists in academia, industry, research institutes, and domestic and international government agencies (e.g., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

The Epidemiology Track prepares graduates who can:

Advance the scientific understanding of the social, behavioral and biomedical determinants of health and disease with a focus on the health of urban populations.
Design, implement, and analyze research aimed at understanding the determinants of health of urban populations.
Apply, adapt and develop epidemiologic perspectives to the interpretation of ongoing research.
Teach students and other public health professionals about epidemiologic field and analytic methods and their practical application to the investigation and control of health conditions among urban populations.
Interact with other urban health related disciplines and organizations such as engineers, environmentalists, trade unions and commuter organizations, public health experts, lawyers, etc.
Develop expertise in substantive content areas relevant to urban health.

Curriculum:
Students must complete at least 12 credits of coursework in epidemiologic methods, 9 credits in statistical methods and software, and an elective in a specific content area, chosen in consultation with the faculty adviser. (This is in addition to the public health core, leadership development, research and dissertation credits required of all DPH students). The Epidemiology curriculum includes the following coursework:

PH820 Epidemiologic Methods I: Research Design and Inference: Through lectures and problem-solving workshops, this course introduces fundamental methodological aspects of epidemiology to the intermediate-level student whose aim is to do epidemiologic research.

PH821 Epidemiologic Methods II: Study Design and Analysis: Through lectures and problem-solving workshops, this course broadens the approach to epidemiologic methods, incorporating principles from Methods I into the design and conduct of studies and analysis of epidemiologic data. It consists of lectures and problem-solving workshops.

PH822 Epidemiologic Methods III: Seminar in Epidemiologic Methods: This seminar exposes students to emerging concepts and methods in epidemiologic research and provides students with an opportunity to consider how these strategies complement, and advance the more commonly used strategies in epidemiology. This seminar also focuses on the application of these methods to the study of urban health.

PH823 Epidemiology Methods IV: Seminar in applications of epidemiologic methods to urban health: This seminar is intended to help students integrate the concepts and methods of epidemiologic research with specific inquiry directed at understanding, and improving the health of urban populations. This seminar requires students to develop proposals for epidemiologic research, identify strategies for data analysis that incorporate the lessons learned in Epidemiology Methods courses I, II, and III and to examine the application of those strategies to existing research. This course helps “bring together” the epidemiology theory and methods that have been discussed throughout the rest of the curriculum to the particular exigencies of urban health research.

Environmental and Occupational Health (EOH)

Mission:
The EOH track trains doctoral-level researchers and teachers about Environmental and Occupational Health problems affecting urban populations. Students with environmental science, occupational health, industrial hygiene, environmental policy, environmental epidemiology, and other related backgrounds will focus on Environmental and Occupational Health regulation as well as planning and its impact on human health. The curriculum combines an understanding of how elements of the urban infrastructure – e.g., the built environment, commerce and productive activities, energy and communication systems, water, waste management and transport systems – interact with macrosocial trends (e.g., demographic, economic, and political processes) to affect environmental conditions (e.g., air, water, land and workplace) and human health. Coursework and research is aimed at furthering scientific understanding of the ways in which urbanization compromises the physical environment and human health as well as the ways in which it promotes health. Such topics as environmental sustainability, environmental justice, economic viability, and political participation will be examined.

The EOH track will produce graduates who can:

Advance the scientific understanding of the impact of environmental and occupational conditions on health and disease.
Plan, lead and manage studies to monitor and evaluate the effect of environmental and occupational health hazards in the urban environment.
Plan, direct, manage and evaluate environmental and occupational health programs.
Teach students and professionals about the impact of environmental and occupational hazards on the health of urban populations and about strategies for controlling such exposures.

Curriculum:
The core curriculum in EOH includes courses on the physical urban environment and research methodology. Students complete a total of 21 credits (7 courses), in addition to 9 credits in the UPH core, 12 credits of public health leadership development, 6 credits of dissertation seminars and 12 credits of dissertation research. The core curriculum includes the following courses:

PH830 Emerging Issues in Environmental and Occupational Health: This course examines the impact of macro-level trends – such as corporate globalization, immigration patterns, and technological development -- on the urban physical environment. It focuses on the relationship between the urban infrastructure (e.g., housing, transportation, sewage and waste disposal) and environmental media (e.g., air quality, water quality and land use). This course also examines the impact of macro-level trends on occupational health and safety conditions, focusing on such issues as outsourcing of manufacturing jobs to developing nations, the rise in the service and informal economies, immigrant labor, de-unionization, the new working class and the loss of the safety net. It examines the effectiveness of current policies in addressing these problems. Through focused readings and in-depth examination of case studies, students develop the tools for analyzing how macro-social trends affect the urban physical environment, workplaces and health. Teams of students then analyze an environmental and occupational issue, illustrate how it affects urban communities, and develop solutions to reduce Environmental and Occupational Health burdens.

PH831 Environmental and Occupational Health Risk Assessment, Management and Communication in Urban Settings: This course examines the development and use of Environmental and Occupational Health risk assessment and its policy implications as applied to urban settings. Approaches to assessing, communicating about and managing urban Environmental and Occupational Health risks are critically analyzed within their political, economic, social and cultural contexts. Risk assessment and risk management procedures are evaluated in light of several themes including public participation, sustainable development, environmental justice, and natural and technological hazards. Students conduct risk assessments on real world Environmental and Occupational Health problems, develop effective written and verbal approaches to communicating the results of risk assessments, and critically review case studies in which Environmental and Occupational Health risk assessments have been used in setting public policy.

Health Policy and Management (HPM) 2010

Mission:
The HPM track prepares students for careers in research, teaching, policy analysis and organizational analysis in the broad fields of health services, health policy, and health management. Students will select a concentration in either Health Policy or Health Management. Students who choose Health Policy as a concentration will develop a nuanced understanding of how a range of mechanisms, systematically associated with policy, influence health in the urban environment. Students who choose Health Management as a concentration will incorporate organizational theory and analysis in understanding how organizational structures, networks, and behavior influence health in the urban environment.

The goals of this track will prepare researchers, teachers and public health practitioners who can:

Contribute to new knowledge about the mechanisms that influence the delivery of health services and public health programs and the development of health policy in urban settings.
Develop and manage initiatives to strengthen the functioning of health systems, health care organizations and public health agencies and programs.
Develop, advocate for and implement health care and public health policies.
Analyze the impact of health and non-health policies on population health.
Teach students and professionals about the social determinants of health, health interventions, health policy, health management and health disparities in urban settings.

Course topics in the concentration will include health status measurement (physical, functional, and psychosocial), health economics (urban-based health economy and private and public market sectors), health impact assessment, disparities in health (racial/ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, disability, immigration status and income/ wealth), health-related quality of life (contextual and compositional effects), and cost benefit/cost effectiveness analysis. Course content in the concentration will include organizational theory, organizational behavior, organizational structures, networks and ownership, and industrial and organizational psychology. The following courses are offered in this concentration:

PH840 Seminar in Health Policy and Management: The objective of the course is to understand patterns in the organization, financing, and delivery of health care, and their relationship to population-based health outcomes, through an integrated exploration of research from the various disciplines informing the health policy and management fields. With an emphasis on the development of critical thinking skills, students are introduced to multidisciplinary models from the social sciences as conceptual sources for health policy and management research. The course adapts a transdisciplinary approach to the examination of important topics in urban public health management and policy, such as the relationship between health systems and the urban-based health economy, and the interface between managerial functions and health policy analysis in addressing health status and outcomes disparities.

PH841. Quantitative Methods in Health Services Research: This course focuses on quantitative reasoning skills in health services research within the context of the principles of the scientific method and the logic of the research process. The logic and methodologies of problem formulation, development of hypotheses and objectives, multidisciplinary research design, sampling, operationalization and measurement are reviewed in connection with selected analytic strategies, such as cross-section/time-series design, multilevel analysis, cost effectiveness analysis, and health impact assessment. Methodological connections between practice-based performance assessment for management and population-based health outcomes assessment for policy are addressed.