Courses

• SAR HS 410: Field Experience: Human Physiology
  Practical experience in a research lab, clinic, community, or industrial setting, as appropriate.
• SAR HS 412: Field Experience: Human Physiology II
  Continuation of SAR HS410
• SAR HS 415: Undergraduate Nutrition Practicum
  Practical experience working with a Registered Dietitian or related health care professional in a community, medical or private practice setting.
• SAR HS 422: Ethics in Health Care
  Available in Dublin Health Science program only This course provides an introduction to ethics and common ethical issues in health care. Lectures will address several topics specific to biomedical ethics, including end of life issues, reproductive technologies, and issues in biomedical research. These issues will be used to examine ethical reasoning, ethical theories and principles, and the use of cases and narratives in ethics. Special attention will be paid to developing skills of ethical analysis through an examination of philosophical arguments. When appropriate, any distinctively Irish dimensions to the ethical issues or cases will be examined. 4 cr. (Offered in the fall only.)
• SAR HS 425: Healthcare Policy and Practice in Ireland
  Available in Dublin Health Science program only This course introduces students to the organization and delivery of healthcare. It helps students develop a critical appreciation of the dynamics of healthcare policy making and the role of healthcare professionals within the sector. It examines healthcare finance and the role and influence of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. It also examines the social, environmental, and behavioral factors that affect healthcare across different social cohorts. It concludes by looking at healthcare regulation and reform.
• SAR HS 430: Global Maternal & Child Health
  This course will provide a global perspective on maternal and child health. Major topics will include early life influences on later life health, maternity care practices worldwide, and the role of both human evolutionary history and sociopolitical structures in shaping health outcomes for women and children
• SAR HS 432: Urban Design and Global Health
  Most of the world's population now lives in urbanized areas, and virtually all future population growth is expected to be urban. This course will address the impacts and opportunities of cities for public health, the environment, and global equity. We will examine the historical, social, economic, and aesthetic reasons for urban design decisions, along with the impacts of those decisions on public health. We'll consider the history and future of urban health infrastructure, as well as modern innovations in design and technology that promise to improve (or degrade) public health. Lessons from cities in the developed world will be applied to design in the developing world, and vice versa. Major topics will include transportation; nature in an urban setting; slums and healthy housing; the epidemiologic study of urban health; zoning and other land-use controls; sanitation; and the history and impacts of globalization.
• SAR HS 434: Global Health Governance
  The world's countries--low-income nations in particular--face numerous health challenges, including fighting Ebola and other infectious diseases, combating the AIDS pandemic, reducing the incidence of maternal death in childbirth, strengthening national health systems and managing a complex global health architecture. This course will examine these and other issues with an emphasis on how you as an actor in global health can intervene to improve health conditions for the poor. In the first part of the course we will consider some of the fundamental difficulties in health governance, including expanding health coverage, the role of the World Health Organization in governing global health, and how we should be setting global health priorities. We will then move on to consider a set of health challenges that have particular impact upon the poor: HIV/AIDS, Ebola, maternal mortality, female circumcision and non-communicable diseases.
• SAR HS 440: Qualitative Research Strategies in Global Health
  Qualitative research methods are increasingly used in public health, and provide valuable insights into the local perspectives of study populations. This course provides practical strategies and methods for using qualitative research and includes the basic assumptions, approach and rationale for making qualitative research decisions, framing qualitative research questions, and designing appropriate research strategies. Examples will be drawn from current global health issues.
• SAR HS 441: Neglected Tropical Diseases
  Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of viral, parasitic, and bacterial diseases that affect more than 1 billion people worldwide and disproportionately burden those with the fewest resources. They can cause significant disability, chronic illness, and death in both children and adults. The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of each of the NTDs including transmission, disease progression, treatment, epidemiology, and control strategies. In addition, we will examine their public health importance and the effects they have at the individual, community, and national level. We will also discuss societal contexts and ethics around treatment, research, advocacy, and prevention.
• SAR HS 442: Healthcare Interventions in Low and Lower-Middle Income Countries
  This course will introduce students to healthcare delivery in low (LICs) and lower middle income countries (LMICs). Students will become familiar with aspects of surgical interventions, pharmaceutical provision, cell phone technology, and global health programming. We will examine healthcare delivery and practices through case studies focused on the prevention and treatment of malnutrition, infectious diseases, and non-communicable diseases. Through this course, students will learn from past and existing healthcare delivery techniques, difficulties, and successes for some of the largest global health challenges such as: cholera, malaria, HIV/AIDS, Type 1 and 2 Diabetes, tobacco use, aging populations, and malnutrition. Students will use these skills to develop healthcare delivery strategies of their own.
• SAR HS 445: Emerging Infectious Diseases
  Emerging infectious diseases include relatively new pathogens, new strains of existing pathogens, the spread of a known pathogen into previously unaffected locations or populations, or a significant evolutionary change in an existing pathogen. Students become familiar with the impact of these diseases on global health, medical practice, international commerce, and development. The course addresses preparedness, surveillance, and response to emerging infectious diseases in our increasingly globalized world.
• SAR HS 450: Non-Infectious Diseases
  This course will examine the four most common preventable non-infectious diseases (diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, upper respiratory diseases), which accounted for nearly 60% of all deaths in the world and 80% in the developing world. Estimates predict that the "second wave" of non-infectious diseases in the coming years will have a detrimental impact on global health and economies. Despite the enormous global burden of non-infectious (or non-communicable) diseases, adequate programs for prevention and treatment do not exist and challenges faced are complex. This course will focus on the preventable risk factors (diet, exercise, tobacco, alcohol, lifestyle, etc), growing burden of disease, and current issues and challenges in control of the four most common diseases, and include discussion, field trips to examine the issues, and the ability for students to be a part of the solution through design of their own intervention.
• SAR HS 463: Germs and Genes
  This course will focus on the social determinants of health--the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, age and die. We will examine case studies from around the globe that reveal the ways in which health inequities are shaped by the distribution of resources, money, and power at the local, national and global level, and the critical role played by social policies in reducing or exacerbating these inequities.
• SAR HS 467: Research Methods in Nutrition
  This course provides an overview of methods used in nutrition research, including dietary assessment methods, indicators of nutritional status, analysis and presentation of dietary data, statistical interpretation, and clinical research methods. The course includes lectures, a field trip to a Boston-area clinical research center, and hands-on experience with nutritional assessment and anthropometrics techniques. Students participate in in-class discussions of published research articles to learn techniques for deriving evidence-based recommendations for clinical practice. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to read, interpret, and understand the findings from clinical research studies and understand the fundamental tools that are used by nutrition researchers.
• SAR HS 480: Comparative Healthcare Systems
  Health systems play an important role in improving life and well-being. Yet there is a profound gap between the potential of health systems and their actual performance. Today, countries around the globe face difficult choices and increasing challenges in organizing, delivering, and funding high- quality health care. In this course students will: understand the components, determinants, and approaches to the structure and outcomes of health care systems in low- and middle-income countries; learn trends in global health care reform and reform outcomes in country-specific contexts; and gain basic knowledge and skills to understand health care systems evaluations with a goal toward designing effective policy strategies that would improve health system performance.
• SAR HS 486: Applied Nutrition Care
  This course provides a review of and an opportunity to implement all aspects of the nutritional care process. Through classroom discussion of case studies as well as experiences at in- and out- patient facilities, students will gain expertise in the provision of nutritional care. 4 credits, 1st semester
• SAR HS 488: Applied Nutrition Counseling
  This course focuses on developing communication and counseling skills in preparation for working with nutrition clients. Topics include: Conducting a nutrition counseling session, promoting sustainable behavior change, counseling clients of various age groups and cultural backgrounds and dealing with difficult patients. In addition, students are introduced to different perspectives in nutrition counseling including motivational interviewing, mindful eating and emotion-based-counseling. The emphasis of the course will be classroom discussion, observation of registered dietitians conducting group counseling sessions and application of practical counseling skills with clients in the community. 2 credits, 1st semester
• SAR HS 495: Directed Study
  Educational experiences and projects performed outside the standard curricular offerings. Undergraduate student completes a defined project under the supervision of a researcher who may or may not be a BU faculty member.
• SAR HS 497: Independent Study
  Project must be proposed in writing before registration and completed with relative independence under guidance of a supervising faculty member. Final report submitted before the end of the semester.

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