Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• SPH PH 720: Individual, Community, and Population Health
  Public health is shaped by overlapping social, economic, and environmental forces. This course uses various conceptual frameworks and theories to explore the root causes of individual choices and behaviors and their impacts on health, vulnerability, and illness. Students will learn to identify effective intervention strategies, such as advocating for legal and policy changes, addressing social inequities, implementing targeted programs that meet community needs, and persuading individuals to change their lifestyles. Additionally, students will learn the art and science of designing and implementing evidence-based approaches to collaborate with communities and health professionals to improve health outcomes, reduce vulnerability, and address the structural foundations of inequity.
• SPH PH 737: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Public Health Decision Making
  Students cannot receive credit for both SPH PH 737 and SPH EH 811. The goal of this course is to provide an introduction to geographic information systems (GIS) specifically with a focus on applications at local, national, and global levels, including demographics & disparities, infectious disease tracking, exposure assessment, community needs assessment, and health policy evaluations. The focus of PH737 is to prepare students to feel comfortable communicating with other GIS users, research spatial data, and produce high quality digital maps in an applied learning environment to support public health decision making. This course is an introductory level mapping class for a novice GIS user, applicable to all public health fields. A substantial portion of the course will be devoted to computer lab sessions. The course uses the open source software QGIS.
• SPH PH 740: Pharmaceuticals in Public Health: An Introductory Course
  Graduate Prerequisites: Recommended: EP713 and MPH core course in health policy and management - This course provides the students with an overview of the role of pharmaceuticals in public health and the basic functions of the pharmaceutical sector in terms of stakeholders, regulations, policies and evaluation. In addition the course has the objective to introduce the students to the pharmaceutical program and provide them with basic knowledge that is necessary to enter other courses. By the end of the course the students will be able to discuss the relevance of pharmaceuticals for public health, identify relevant actors in the pharmaceutical sector and their functions, to identify problems within the pharmaceutical sector that lead to inequity and inefficiencies and propose strategies to overcome these problems.
• SPH PH 746: Career P.R.E.P.
  Public health professionals must develop networking and negotiation skills to succeed in the workforce. This career development course equips students with the essential tools and strategies to market themselves in the practicum and job search process and advance in their careers. Students will learn to research potential career paths, refine their job search and interview techniques, and develop proactive strategies for long-term career growth and success. This required academic component (0 credits) can be completed in any semester.
• SPH PH 748: Demographic Methods: Measuring and Modeling Population Health
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPH717) or consent of instructor. “Climate change, demographics, water, food, energy, global health, women’s empowerment –these issues are all intertwined. We cannot look at one strand in isolation. Instead, we must examine how these strands are woven together.” —Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations This is a graduate level course that introduces (a) core quantitative methods used in population health science and demography, (b) common applications of these methods in public health, (c) designing and conducting original studies using the population health science toolkit, and (d) application of these tools in research dissemination, public health advocacy, and community partnerships. Demographic and population health science methods underpin and complement approaches from epidemiology and biostatistics. This methods course is designed to give you firsthand experience in applying tools from the quantitative population sciences in order to help you develop an interdisciplinary skillset to solve complex problems in public health. The course begins by introducing core concepts in population health science and demography including mortality, fertility, morbidity, population age and sex structure, population growth, birth cohorts, and migration. This foundation will provide you with a working knowledge of key concepts, terms, and measures from the field to understand the methods you will be learning. Much of the course is then devoted to an in-depth introduction to the primary methods, tools, and data used in the population health sciences, such as age standardization, life tables, decomposition, estimation of population attributable risks, analysis of excess mortality, forecasting, indirect estimation methods, and methods for evaluating data quality. Through completion of your coursework, you will develop and demonstrate proficiency in demographic methods, tools, and data in a variety of use cases. The remainder of the course is devoted to applications and dissemination of research methods to contemporary challenges in public health. The course will specifically explore the utility and implications of quantitative population science methods for health equity and community engaged research. This will include exploration of how these methods can be utilized to better understand population inequities and ways that quantitative findings generated through these methods can be effectively disseminated and used in public health advocacy. You will emerge from this course with a toolbox of quantitative methods from the population health sciences. You will also develop proficiency with commonly used databases in the population health sciences that are not as commonly used in other disciplines, including data from the American Community Survey, the Public Use Microdata Sample, the National Vital Statistics System, and linkages of survey data to the National Death Index. The course will consist of assigned readings, lectures, class discussion, hands-on problem-sets, and a cross-cutting group project in which students will gain experience with these methods. R Studio will be the primary statistical software used for cleaning and analyzing data through in-class examples, problem sets, and course deliverables. PH 717 (or equivalent) will provide the basic skills needed. You will gain additional proficiency in R.
• SPH PH 750S: Essentials of Population Health Research
  The goal of this 4-credit course is to introduce students to the data, tools, and methods of population health research. Students will develop the skills necessary to formulate and answer consequential research questions in population health research drawing on theory and methods from epidemiology, biostatistics, and the broader social sciences. Students will prepare an extended research abstract by the end of the semester on a topic of interest in population health research.
• SPH PH 758: Foundations of Public Health Data Science
  Prerequisites: one undergraduate introductory course in statistics and biostatistics This course provides an introduction to the practical skills and foundational concepts of public health data science. It offers a broad overview of key analytical techniques, such as regression, classification, clustering, and network analysis, within the context of real-world public health research. Students will gain a conceptual understanding of how data science informs public health decisions, how to manage and prepare data, and how to identify appropriate analytic methods for different types of data problems.
• SPH PH 760S: Accelerated Training in Statistical Computing
  Graduate Prerequisites: Can't be taken together for credit with SPHBS 723 or BS 730. - This class will introduce students to statistical programming in SAS and the conceptual foundations for biostatistical and epidemiologic data analyses, including descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariable regression, and stratified analyses. The course will also introduce students to analysis of qualitative data, predictive and causal modeling, and data visualization. This is a two week intensive course that includes hands-on exercises and projects designed to build skills in statistical computing in population health research.
• SPH PH 780: Chronic Disease: A Public Health Perspective
  This is the foundational course for the certificate in chronic and non-communicable disease (chronic/NCD). Chronic and non-communicable diseases (Chronic/NCD) are responsible for a large majority of the deaths in the United States and a rapidly rising share of deaths in low- and middle-income countries. In addition to their effect on mortality, these conditions have an enormous impact on disability, quality of life, health care costs, and lost productivity, and are also a major contributor to health disparities. The course provides students with an overview of the public health approach toward chronic/NCD across the continuum of identification of causes, implementation and evaluation of strategies for prevention, and treatment and management of disease to reduce mortality and improve quality of life. Through readings, lectures, in-class exercises, and discussions, the course highlights overarching themes in chronic and non-communicable diseases, to view these conditions through a public health framework, and to further develop their knowledge and skills in subsequent courses toward their certificate.
• SPH PH 781: Topics in BST
  
• SPH PH 782: Topics in CHS
  
• SPH PH 783: Topics in EH
  
• SPH PH 784: Topics in EP
  
• SPH PH 785: Topics in GH
  
• SPH PH 786: Topics in HLPM
  
• SPH PH 791: Topics in BST
  
• SPH PH 792: Topics in CHS
  
• SPH PH 793: Topics in EH
  
• SPH PH 794: Topics in EP
  
• SPH PH 795: Topics in GH