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 MC 845: Perinatal Health Services
This seminar will focus on the contribution of perinatal health services and policies to improving birth outcomes and maternal well-being and reducing racial/ethnic disparities. This seminar will not address the identification of underlying causes or risks for poor birth outcomes, but rather the amelioration of known risks through organized public health programs and policies. A wide range of current prenatal health initiatives will be examined, including the CDC's preconception and health care initiatives; comprehensive prenatal care (including home visiting) and centering pregnancy initiatives; community-based Healthy Start initiatives; the March of Dimes prematurity prevention campaign; interconception and internatal care interventions; women's health and MCH life-course initiatives, child and family allowances, and European reproductive health practices and policies. The special emphasis of this course will be on the practical implementation and delivery efficacious perinatal health services. -
SPH PH 709: The Biology of Public Health
This course, designed for students who have little or no background in the biological sciences, provides a foundation in the biological mechanisms and principles underlying major public health problems. Selected public health problems are explored from a biological perspective in order to provide fundamental information about infectious and non-infectious agents of disease, disease transmission, biological defense mechanisms, co-evolution of man and microbes, the effects of nutritional deficiency and excess, effects of respiratory exposures, the biology of cancer, aging, and other topics. Each student completing this course should be able to knowledgeably participate in a discussion of public health problems with a basic understanding of the terminology, the underlying biological mechanisms of major public health problems, the biological impact of disease, and the major biological issues that influence the success of interventions. This course, or its equivalent, or SPH EH710, Physiology, are required pre-requisites for SPH EH768, Introduction to Toxicology. -
SPH PH 712: Public Health Response to Emergencies in the United States
This course provides students with the necessary knowledge and skills to understand the public health impacts and roles during emergencies and disasters in the United States. The course will use two recent cases, 2013 Boston marathon bombing and 2009-2010 pandemic flu, to explore the persons, events, decisions, policies, and systems involved in each of the events. Students will apply emergency preparedness skills to analyze preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation operations and to communicate risk effectively. Students will consider the question that plagues governmental authorities and residents alike: ARE WE READY? In the end, students will possess a command over how the public health system can provide essential services and support healthy communities during times of emergency. This is accomplished through a combination of case studies, panel discussions, team activities, tours, and exercises. -
SPH PH 728: Religion and Public Health
This course will introduce students to the health related aspects of a variety of Western and Eastern religious traditions, health controversies that exist within those traditions, methods that can be used to reconcile public health needs with religious traditions. Through review of case studies, students will be challenged to harmonize public health priorities with cultural beliefs in a way that best serves the community. For example, we will study the religious controversy inherent in major public health issues such as exemptions to mandatory vaccination laws, sex education in public schools, statues outlawing female genital cutting, life support withdrawal, determination of death, faith healing, fetal stem cell research and allocation of scarce resources. Ultimately, students will generate a robust conceptual framework, enabling a nuanced approach to some of the most critical topics in the field of public health. -
SPH PH 825: The Role of Human and Environmental Factors in Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases
The goal of this course is to give students a basic understanding of the human and environmental factors involved in the natural history of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Specific infectious diseases, including avian influenza, SARS, dengue, chikungunya, and enterohemorrhagic E. coli, will be employed as models to illustrate the involvement of these factors. Major emphasis will be placed on understanding the pathogenesis of the specific infectious diseases under discussion, as such an understanding is essential for appreciating how any disease emerges or re-emerges. At the conclusion of the course, students will be able to apply the principles they have learned to analyze and determine the factors involved in the new emergence or re-emergence of an infectious disease; knowledge which is ultimately essential for determining appropriate disease control and prevention strategies. -
SPH PH 851: Needs Assessment
This course examines the processes by which local and regional health status and services can be assessed and analyzed. Students will learn approaches to: quantitatively and qualitatively defining public health problems; setting a community agenda by prioritizing distinct public health problems; engage the community in assessing local capacity to address those problems; visualizing those problems with Geographic Information Systems; and presenting the results of their assessment to audiences of decision makers and the public. -
SPH PH 853: Strategic Planning and Communications
This course focuses on the development and implementation of program and policy interventions that can improve public health by modifying people's health-related behaviors, and on the design and execution of effective oral and written communications to support those interventions. Working through a sequence of written assignments, students will develop: (1) a set of theory-based learning and environmental change objectives; (2) a strategic plan for a program or policy intervention designed to change an important health-related behavior; (3) a management plan for implementing and maintaining that intervention; (4) a supportive communication strategy; and (5) specific media and communications executions to operationalize that strategy. In class writing workshops and individual consultations are designed to give students ideas for their projects and interim feedback on their written assignments. -
SPH PH 854: Program and Policy Evaluation
Evaluation research is critical to the advancement of public health knowledge and the improvement of program services. This course focuses on the theory and practice of program evaluation and the development of student evaluation skills and their implementation in practice. Students will use case study materials. Students will learn to conceptualize the entire evaluation process from the development of program logic, through evaluation design, measurement, sample size calculation and an analysis plan. In addition, students will learn about cost-effectiveness analysis and meta-analysis for policy development. PH854 is a summer-long course. -
SPH PH 856: Law & Ethics for Public Health Leaders
Law, ethics, and human rights often either determine or heavily influence both the range of choices open to public health policymakers and the means available to achieve public health goals. Using case studies, including rationing flu vaccine, responding to catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina, protecting and promoting women?s health and reproductive rights in developing countries, and regulating research to prevent exploitation of subjects in resource poor countries, students will recognize and integrate legal, ethical, and human rights concepts into public health policy development. -
SPH PH 857: Health Economics and Financial Management for Public Health
This course is an applied, practitioner-oriented survey of major topics in health economics and the financial management of public health organizations and programs. It will provide students with a brief introduction to the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of health economics and financial management, but the focus will be on practical application to health care market issues, resource allocation policy problems, financial and managerial accounting, performance measurement, and economic evaluation of public health programs. -
SPH PH 858: Cases in Public Health Management
This course will focus on developing tools for and perspectives on decision- making in senior public health positions through analysis of a series of case studies. Students will adopt different roles in preparing the cases, sometimes singly and sometimes in groups. The cases will address challenges faced by senior leadership including human resources, facilities design, quality control, organizational change and integration of policy and program planning. Students will be assessed on: (1) memos prepared for their roles in individual classes; (2) the quality of their participation in class discussions of the cases; and (3) their response to a case that will be distributed as a final examination. -
SPH PH 866: Public Health Leadership Seminar
The public health leadership seminar will be the main integrative pedagogic experience of the DrPH doctoral program. It will provide a place for combining and applying knowledge from previous courses and field experience to address substantial complex multidimensional public health programs. It will also address crosscutting issues that may not be covered in any single DrPH core or departmental course. This integrative leadership doctoral seminar will model/demonstrate the multidimensional approaches and cross-cutting leadership needed to address a complex public health practice issue, including students' dissertation projects. The seminar will also provide an opportunity to meet/learn from/and interact with senior Public Health officials/practitioners. -
SPH PH 970: Public Health Practicum
This course allows students the opportunity to integrate and apply classroom learning in a public health work environment through an approved, planned and supervised practicum. For students matriculating in Fall 2009 and after, course components include: 1. placement in an agency or organization with a scope of work which develops and applies learned public health skills. 2. minimum of 112 practicum work hours 3.approved learning contract 4.faculty and agency oversight 5.midpoint review 6.written abstract 7. poster presentation and integration seminar 8.evaluations 9. attendance of 2 skill-based professional development seminars. For students matriculating prior to Fall 2009, see the Practice Office for requirements. Practicum course is graded pass/fail. -
SPH PH 971: Public Health Practicum
This course presents an opportunity for students to use his/her second year SSW field placement to fulfill the MPH practicum requirement. Course components include one, 2-hour seminar and an individualized learning experience (choice of seminars or reflective essay, focusing on social work and/or public health practices). Students must also attend two skill-based professional development seminars. Practicum is graded Pass/fail. -
SPH PH 975: Public Health Practicum
This course allows students the opportunity to integrate and apply classroom learning in a public health work environment through an approved, planned and supervised practicum. Students may register for 1, 2, 3, or 4 credits. For students matriculating in Fall 2009 and after, course components include: 1. placement in an agency or organization with a scope of work which develops and applies learned public health skills. 2. minimum of 112 practicum work hours 3.approved learning contract 4.faculty and agency oversight 5.midpoint review 6.written abstract 7. poster presentation and integration seminar 8.evaluations 9. attendance of 2 skill-based professional development seminars. For students matriculating prior to Fall 2009 who do a 2 or 4 credit practicum, see the Practice Office for requirements. Students matriculating prior to Fall 2009 who select a 1 or 3 credit practicum in Fall 2009 or thereafter must follow the new requirements. Practicum course is graded pass/fail. -
SPH PH 984: Public Health Practicum
This 4-credit directed practicum option and is available for the student who will produce an enhanced academic product suitable for publication or for presentation upon completion of the practicum. In order to choose this option, the student must also identify a BUSPH faculty member with whom to work. Expectations and guidelines for the academic product must be discussed with the faculty preceptor at the onset of the practicum. The student must demonstrate the capacity to complete such a project. The faculty member should commit to such a project only if he/she is willing to co-author with the student on the practicum product. The faculty member must also commit to meeting with the student several times during the course of the practicum semester. For students matriculating in Fall 2009 and after, course components include: 1. placement in an agency or organization with a scope of work which develops and applies learned public health skills. 2. minimum of 112 practicum work hours 3.approved learning contract 4.faculty and agency oversight 5.midpoint review 6.written abstract 7. poster presentation and integration seminar 8.evaluations 9. attendance of 2 skill-based professional development seminars.10. submission of enhanced academic product. For students matriculating prior to Fall 2009, see the Practice Office for requirements. Practicum is graded. -
SPH PH 986: DrPH Practicum
Required practicum for DrPH students. Students must submit paperwork to Sebastian Bach in the DrPH Program Office for approval prior to registration. Course is pass/fail. -
SPH PH 990: Continuing Study in DrPH Program
Must be DrPH student working on dissertation. Doctoral students who have completed all academic course requirements, must register for Continuing Study Fee every Fall and Spring semester until they have successfully defended their dissertation and graduated from SPH. Students are certified full time and charged for student health insurance, the equivalent of two credits of tuition, and all relevant fees. -
SPH PM 702: Introduction to Health Policy, Delivery, and Management
Almost 90 percent of the $2.8 trillion spent on health care in this nation in 2012 was used to provide medical services to individuals. High costs, unequal coverage and access, stresses on many caregivers, tradeoffs among quality and cost and access, and growing political tensions afflict U.S. health care. These problems affect all of us who work in public health. This course analyzes these problems, their causes, and ways to solve them. Specifically, how can our vast human and financial resources be marshaled and managed to improve health care delivery for all Americans? To answer this question, the course examines how people are covered, how care is organized and delivered, how money is raised and caregivers are paid, management, politics, ethics, and more. It considers hospitals, physicians and other caregivers, long-term care, prescription drugs, and mental health. NOTE: This course meets the health policy and management MPH core requirement. It is the prerequisite for most others in the department. Peace Corps/MI students who are not HPM concentrators, students studying on F-1 or J-1 visas, students who are not permanent residents of the U.S. and who are not Health Policy and Management concentrators, and all International Health concentrators may substitute IH704. -
SPH PM 721: Organizational Behavior in Health Care
This course provides a framework for understanding, diagnosing, and taking actions to improve individual, group, and system-wide effectiveness in health services organizations. Concepts from the organizational behavior literature are applied to issues in health services organizations. Some of the topics this course addresses and integrates are leadership, motivation, culture, team dynamics, organization design and coordination, and organizational change. Case studies, brief lectures, student presentations, and experiential exercises are used throughout this course, and working in teams is a large component of the course.
