Courses
The course descriptions below are correct to the best of our knowledge as of June 2013. Instructors reserve the right to update and/or otherwise alter course descriptions as necessary after publication. The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. The Course Rotation Guide lists the expected semester a course will be taught. Paper copies are also available in the BUSPH Registrar’s office. Please refer to the published schedule of classes for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times. In addition to the courses listed in the bulletin and courses approved after June 1, 2013, SPH, SPH degree candidates may register for a directed (independent) study with a full-time SPH faculty member. For more information, speak with your faculty advisor or a staff member in the SPH Registrar’s Office.
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SPH PM 830: Developing Patient-Based Health Status and Outcomes Measures
Contemporary health services research relies heavily on patient-based measures of health status and other outcomes of health care. This course covers development and application of health status constructs to be measured, scope and content of questionnaires, qualitative and quantitative methods of scale development and validation, and new assessment methodologies including Item Response Theory and Computer Adapted Testing. Practical issues of deciding if and when to develop a new measure, as well as selecting and applying measures in designing health outcomes research are addressed. -
SPH PM 831: Implementation Research and Implementation Science: Conceptual Basis for Linking Research and Practice in Health Services Research
A major gap exists in health services research between what is known about interventions and the actual use of those interventions in practice. Often, interventions shown effective in the research setting do not translate in the real world. Implementation science focuses on developing methods to ensure that evidence‐based models are effectively translated to the clinical setting. The course focuses on the complex concepts of implementation science, including the wide range of theoretical frameworks and approaches driving the field. Students will also learn about different models of implementation research, its strengths and limitations, and develop an implementation research study proposal. -
SPH PM 832: Operations Management in Health Care
This course is designed to focus on the field of operations management (OM) in healthcare. Students will learn to apply OM principles to develop more effective operational processes, mitigate risks, and improve quality. Discussions from the text, case studies and assignments will focus on strategies and techniques of quality improvement processes, project management, work-flow and system design, and capacity planning. Additionally students will explore the intricacy, complexity and dynamics of logistics in healthcare. An industry based project will enable students to engage and implement several of the tools learned in class. -
SPH PM 833: Health Economics
This course develops the tools of basic microeconomic analysis and applies them to key health policy issues. It emphasizes the trade-offs involved in various choices within the health care economy, with particular attention to examination of issues related to the debate between pro-market and government regulatory approaches to health care policy. Topics include the role of risk and uncertainty in health and health care, the industrial organization of the health care sector, and how payment systems affect the incentives and behavior of patients, insurers, and providers. -
SPH PM 834: Health Regulation and Planning
Failures of competitive markets in health care have sparked public planning and regulation. But these, in turn, have not been very successful in addressing problems of access, cost, appropriateness/quality, or caregiver configuration. Examining cases of persisting health problems such as childhood lead poisoning and quality of nursing home care, this course dissects what has worked and why. We examine ways to quantify harm caused by a problem, analyze causes of the harm, develop policies and programs to address those causes, and analyze the efficacy, cost, political feasibility, and managerial feasibility of specific programs. Each student prepares a realistic plan to ameliorate harm to people's health caused by a persisting threat. -
SPH PM 835: Lean Management in Healthcare
This course is designed to prepare students to plan and successfully implement lean management driven processes in health care organizations. It teaches lean principles and provides the opportunity to complete a lean managed project. It therefore uses a blended format that includes a week long intensive program for training on lean concepts and tools, followed by a semester long field work on a quality improvement project using lean methodology with online and personal support. -
SPH PM 837: Evaluating Health Care Quality
The purpose of this class is to provide a scientific basis to quality measurement. Topics include reliability and validity of measures, implicit versus explicit reviews, provider profiling, and the role of risk-adjustment. The course also covers applications of quality measures in health care today. Examples are drawn from various settings including acute care, long-term care, and ambulatory care. Readings are mostly based on articles in the health services research literature. -
SPH PM 838: Health Politics and Policy
This course is designed to help students understand political dynamics of health policy making at the state level and to develop practical skills required for effective work as policy advocates. Analytic models, case studies, guest speakers, and in-class exercises promote a practical understanding of how ideas succeed, or fail, to become law. -
SPH PM 840: Analysis of Current Health Policy Issues
The purpose of this course is to arm students with the skills to debate, define, and defend health policy proposals. We will explore, in depth, several current health policy problems. The course will take an analytic case approach, identifying policy options and tools, then gathering information and applying data to evaluate outcomes, costs; winners and losers. Methods for finding and accessing information on the Internet are emphasized. This is a capstone course meant to be taken in the student's last semester. -
SPH PM 842: Health Economics for Health Services Research
This course provides an understanding of principles of microeconomics and applied microeconomic analysis of public health policy issues sufficient to comprehend and conduct health services research. The over-arching philosophical issues facing the post health care reform world and the arguments defining the debate between pro-market and government regulatory approaches are addressed. The main focus is on domestic health economics; however, analytic methods developed in the course are applicable to foreign health care systems. There is a lab component. Students may not take both PM833 and PM842 for degree credit. -
SPH PM 850: Organizing for Health System Change
We are at an exciting point in the evolution of health care reform. As the focus for system delivery reform begins to value quality and cost transparency, consumers and patients could be left on the side lines. This course offers students the opportunity to tackle a persistent health care problem of their choosing, the solution for which, will move patients and consumers closer to the center of our delivery system. Students will create a framework for a consumer-led campaign by crafting strategic tools, proposing media and communication plans and writing a memo that can be used as a pitch to potential funders. This is a dynamic class that values class participation. Students will work in groups and will be invited to tackle problems such as: patient engagement and empowerment in a reformed payment system; health literacy and education for non-English speakers; implementation of the Affordable Care Act; and implementation of comprehensive payment reform. -
SPH PM 855: Cost Effectiveness Analysis and Decision Analysis
This course offers an introduction to the uses and conduct of cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) as decision making aids in the health and medical fields. It provides students with an understanding of the roles and limitations of CEAs and criteria for evaluating these studies. Important theoretical and practical issues encountered in measuring costs and effectiveness, evaluating outcomes, discounting, and dealing with uncertainty are discussed. Discussions on framing and reporting of CEAs focus on the purpose of the analysis and the effective communication of its findings. Case studies demonstrate the use of CEAs in the areas of prevention, drug treatment, and new technologies. Students who take PM855 should not enroll in PM807. -
SPH PM 940: Health Policy and Management Culminating Experience
Health Policy and Management concentrators must complete a culminating experience in their final semester of registration. To document their work on the culminating experience, concentrators must register for SPH PM940, a zero-credit, pass/fail course. For more details on the requirements for the culminating experience, please see the Concentrator Guide for the concentration. -
SPH PM 980: Continuing Study in Health Services Research
M.S. and Ph.D. students in Health Services Research who have completed all academic course requirements, must register for Continuing Study every Fall and Spring semester until they have successfully defended their thesis or dissertation and graduated from SPH. Students are charged the equivalent of two credits of tuition, student health insurance, and all relevant fees, and are certified as full time students. -
SPH SB 710: Nutrition and Public Health
This course examines the principles of public health nutrition and explores the nutritional status of individuals throughout their life cycle. Faculty focus on nutrition assessment, the development of nutrition policy, the role of diet in obesity and chronic diseases of an affluent society, nutrition program planning, and national and local nutrition surveillance. In addition, the course reviews the components of administering nutrition services on a local, national, and international level. The impact of overall socioeconomic development on nutrition and health status, infectious disease, and public health policy is considered. No previous coursework in nutrition is required; a basic introduction to nutrition is provided. -
SPH SB 721: Social and Behavioral Sciences for Public Health
This survey course introduces MPH students to social and behavioral sciences within the context of public health scholarship, research, and practice. The basic aim of the course is to teach students the social and behavioral science fundamentals (principles, theories, research, and techniques) that can and should be used to inform the identification, definition, assessment, and resolution of public health problems. The course focuses on providing a framework for considering the important questions in a thoughtful and evidence-based manner such that students will be able to critically analyze public health problems and determine the appropriate social and behavioral sciences principles, theories, and research that will be most effective and useful in intervening to address that particular public health problem. The course considers alternative paradigms for understanding and intervening to resolve public health problems in a critical way, drawing heavily upon the public health literature in which these various perspectives have been vigorously debated and discussed. -
SPH SB 730: Stress as a Public Health Problem
Research on the impact of excessive psychological stress indicates that it plays a significant role in physical and psychological health, in rising incidence of substance use and violence in communities, in increased absenteeism and decreased productivity in the work place, and increased medical costs. This course examines the impact of psychological, biological, environmental and social stressors on health, illness, health-risking behavior and its economic and public health consequences. Education and intervention strategies and programs involving community awareness and participation are evaluated. Through literature review, lecture and discussion, students examine the field and explore its application to health care and public health. -
SPH SB 732: Nutrition, Aging, and the Elder Population
This course explores the nutritional needs of elderly adults and describes the various physiological, psychological, and social changes that occur with aging that affect dietary and nutritional status. The techniques of nutritional assessment of elders in both the community and clinical settings are discussed. The nutritional needs of older adults are linked with recommendations designed to maintain optimal health into older age. Students learn about the major federal and state nutrition programs that target elders and are able to identify strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in services. Preparation of a brief policy memo on a topic of current interest and/or controversy related to elderly nutrition is required. -
SPH SB 733: Mass Communication and Public Health
This course explores the use of mass communication as a tool for health promotion, both domestically and internationally. The course examines the role of the mass media in shaping a social and cultural environment that affects the public health , and then reviews a range of mass media strategies available to the practitioner--public communication campaigns, social marketing, public relations, and media advocacy. Students discuss the strengths and limitations of each approach and gain experience in applying these strategies to specific public health problems. Students work in groups on a final project in which they develop and present a proposal for a plan for a health promotion initiative that uses mass media. -
SPH SB 750: Preventing Intimate Partner Violence
This course provides an introduction to the topic of intimate partner violence with a focus on how public health practitioners can contribute to its prevention. Lectures will cover teen dating violence, child witnesses to violence, batterer intervention, the domestic violence shelter movement, elder abuse, the intersectionality of oppressions framework and partner violence prevention, and the overlap between child abuse and partner violence. Students will receive information about current laws and controversies related to partner violence prevention. This course is primarily focused on partner violence in the U.S.. The major assignment for this course is a one-hour presentation prepared and delivered to the class; therefore, students should be prepared for public speaking. Students who complete the course will be prepared to undertake research assistant, health department, or community-based work in the area of partner violence prevention and advocacy. Teaching methods include lectures, small group discussion, case analyses, the use of multimedia, and interviews with providers. National and state experts in the field of partner violence prevention present guest lectures.
