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 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 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 757: Chronic Disease Prevention and Management
  Chronic, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic lung disease, are a leading threat to the health of the population. In this course, students will set out to ascertain the background and significance of major chronic diseases affecting population health, and evaluate intervention efforts targeting chronic disease prevention and its long term management. Controversies in current chronic disease prevention efforts will be analyzed. Students are expected to gain skills directly relevant for the development, implementation, and evaluation of interventions directed towards chronic disease prevention and management.
• SPH PH 760S: Accelerated Training in Statistical Computing
  Graduate Prerequisites: Can^t be taken together for credit with SPH BS 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
  
• SPH PH 796: Topics in HLPM
  
• SPH PH 802: Environmental Justice: Social movement, Science and Policy
  For decades, low income and BIPOC communities have challenged scientists and public health professionals to confront polluters and prevent environmental exposures that affect people’s health where they live, work, and play. And yet, exposure and health inequities affecting low-income and BIPOC communities of color have increased over time. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Environmental Justice is “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” This course will engage students in examining the data that determines environmental justice populations and analyze watershed moments in the environmental justice movement beginning with the establishment of the US EPA in 1970. We will critically examine environmental policies and legal decisions in the context of the civil rights movement, and seminal studies of hazardous waste landfills and the racial and economic status of the surrounding communities. Finally, we will prepare students to evaluate environmental justice concerns using publicly available data on population characteristics and exposures used by agencies at the federal, state, and local level.