Global Health

• SPH GH 701: Global Health Storytelling
  Global Health Storytelling is an interdisciplinary class for journalism and public health students who have a passionate interest in crafting rich, nuanced, compelling narratives about global health for a broad audience. This is a class for public health students who want to communicate public health science, practice, and policies in the style of an Atlantic Monthly article, a New York Times feature, or an NPR audio story. Likewise, it is a class for journalism or other communication-focused students interested in building public health knowledge. Students will learn from global health and journalism professors, guest speakers, and one another through class-room based instruction and individual reporting projects.
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  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
• SPH GH 715: ARV Management Issues in Low Resource Settings
  Graduate Prerequisites: For MPH students who have completed > 16 credits or all four MPH core courses. Successful HIV/AIDS treatment programs rely on consistent, uninterrupted supplies of antiretrovirals (ARVs), appropriate ARV prescribing, retention of patients in treatment programs, and a high level of adherence by patients. Ineffective ARV management leads to treatment failures, ARV resistance, illness, and death. This course is activity-based, and will engage students in the nuts and bolts of each stage of HIV treatment provision, with in-depth exercises applied to one country. Students will gain practical knowledge and skills to understand and manage testing and treatment initiation, retention in care, treatment adherence, and challenges related to ARV cost and scale-up. Guest lecturers with relevant expertise will be invited to speak on specific topics. If possible, one session will be devoted to a field visit to an adherence clinic to learn directly about the ARV program management issues faced by practitioners and patients.
• SPH GH 722: Supply Chain Management for Improved Health System Performance
  Supply chain logistics is an important aspect of public health programs, and an area that is often unappreciated. The journey from manufacturer to a patient in a remote rural area is a complicated and fascinating management challenge. Global COVID-19 vaccine supply and distribution has posed one of the greatest logistical public health challenges of our time. This course provides a practical introduction to the core tenets of health commodity supply chain management (SCM), including system design, assessment, quantification, procurement, inventory management, and logistics management information systems. Using the "Access Framework," students will gain foundational knowledge, including analytical skills, and apply that knowledge in hands-on exercises, class discussions, and real-life case studies. This course incorporates a strong experiential component to enhance learning including simulations and interviewing subject area experts about current supply chain management innovations and challenges.
• SPH GH 743: Implementing Health Programs in Developing Countries: Making Programs Work
  Graduate Prerequisites: For advanced MPH students (>16 credits completed). Recommend completion of GH744 prior to taking GH743, but not required. - As professionals working in different settings, we often end up running programs we did not design, which are under-financed, and which face enormous implementation challenges. In this course, students will work with a specifically identified health program that is currently being implemented. They will conduct systems analyses, undertake problem solving exercises, and propose solutions to real implementation challenges in the field. Ultimately, they will be able to prioritize the interventions necessary to effectively run a complex health program in such diverse situations as urban slums and dispersed rural areas in a variety of settings and be prepared to plan the actions to effectively run those programs. This course is directed towards students in the health management emphasis area and is not suitable for students in their first semester of studies. Students who will particularly benefit from this course are both U.S. and international students who plan to manage programs in different settings, including in low and middle income countries.
• SPH GH 745: Monitoring and Evaluation of Global Health Programs
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPH717) or instructor permission. - here is consensus within the global public health community that inadequate project monitoring and evaluation (M&E) represents a major constraint in programmatic efforts to address the problems we face. The absence of sound M&E processes in large numbers of public health projects, despite continued evidence of their value in assessing and improving project performance, suggests that many project planners and managers may not yet have the necessary skills or understanding to develop and operate such systems. This course is designed to help address this need. This course provides a detailed analysis of program monitoring and evaluation with an emphasis on public health and nutrition-related projects. By reading relevant literature and using case studies, students will gain an understanding of the language and tools of program evaluation. The course will focus both on theory and practical utilization, and will consist of presentations, discussions, and applied exercises involving the preparation and critiquing of monitoring and evaluation plans. The course has a required, non-credit lab that is scheduled in a different time slot than the class.
• SPH GH 747: Strategic Planning and Resource Mobilization
  Organizational sustainability is achieved when an organization has the leadership, human resources and talent, financial capabilities, and change strategies necessary to navigate the challenges that organizations face every day. Organizational sustainability is anchored in a robust strategic plan and is supported by resource mobilization. Resource mobilization ensures that an organization can strategically position human, financial, and material resources to meet their organizational goals and fulfill their overall mission. Using a variety of adult learning strategies, students will learn how to move from a strategic plan to a resource mobilization plan, incorporating a mix of methods to achieve results. Over the course of the semester, students will act as public health consultants to develop a strategic plan for a client organization which will include internal and external inputs, goals, strategies, success measures, and a tactical plan for resource mobilization.
• SPH GH 750: Gender, Sexuality, Power, and Inequality in Global Health
  This course explores the socio-cultural, economic and political contexts in which people live their lives and how these, and local and large-scale forces of structural violence (inequity, marginalization and gender discrimination) impact health and development. Course readings and discussions examine how these forces constitute immediate and fundamental risk factors and must therefore be considered and addressed as part of any effort to improve public health. Course format: seminar with topics introduced by professor and guest lecturers.
• SPH GH 755: Managing Disasters and Complex Humanitarian Emergencies
  The incidence and severity of public health emergencies due to violent conflict and natural disasters is rising and are increasingly devastating to individuals, communities and their property. This course expose students to various aspects of disasters and humanitarian emergencies globally. Course readings and discussions explore the causes and consequences of disasters and humanitarian emergencies including population displacements. Students learn immediate rapid response, long-term public health interventions and disaster risk reduction and preparedness. Given the ever-changing nature of humanitarian emergencies, course readings and lectures are supplemented with weekly discussions of the most current events in the field. Experts share their experiences on how to prepare for personal involvement of living and working in relief situations.
• SPH GH 756: Analytical Methods for Pharmaceutical Systems Assessment
  Graduate Prerequisites: PH740 or consent of instructor - This course aims to develop skills essential to assessing and evaluating pharmaceutical policy and the performance of pharmaceutical programs. Students will learn to develop a pharmaceutical country profile, analyze medicine prices and availability, apply technical guidelines, and use other assessment tools and methods in the pharmaceutical sector. Students will also develop skills to undertake a sampling exercise, use qualitative methods, and review and write technical reports. Students will use instruments which are already developed with a focus on implementation issues, analysis of data collected and awareness of strength and limitation of each method applied. The course will introduce students to the many resources which exist to help understand pharmaceutical sectors, and prepare them to work in a national or sub national pharmaceutical system.
• SPH GH 760: Foundations in Global Health
  Achieving global health requires an understanding how politics, economics, ethnicity, gender and culture affect individual and population-wide health care actions, systems, and strategies. Through this course, students will develop skills to analyze the magnitude of global morbidity and mortality, the causes and consequences of global health problems, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Students will learn about historic and current power imbalances including colonialism that shape the global health architecture and their profound effects on national health policies and outcomes. Student will develop and implement sustainable and evidence-based multi-sectoral interventions and the fundamentals of monitoring and evaluation techniques to global health programs, policies, and outcomes. Course work will provide students opportunities to apply these foundational skills in analyzing global health challenges and develop cross-cultural awareness and resourcefulness in solving problems that they may encounter in their professional careers.
• SPH GH 762: Essentials of Economics and Finance for Global Health
  This course provides an introduction to health economics, with an emphasis on evaluating costs and cost-effectiveness of public health interventions and programs in resource-constrained settings, such as developing countries. Issues of financing to pay for effective and cost-effective naturally follow. The course does not assume prior training in economics, and provides the conceptual underpinnings of health economics but emphasizes skills needed to complete applied evaluations in real world settings. Case studies, based on actual studies completed by faculty, focus on practical applications.
• SPH GH 765: Global Mental Health
  Mental health is relatively new to the global health agenda. At the 54th World Health Assembly in 2001, the WHO and health ministers from around the world made an impassioned argument that mental health disorders be systematically measured and addressed in all countries. Since then critical progress has been made in understanding the global burden of mental illness and the challenges faced by those in need of care in low and middle-income countries or in contexts marked by armed conflict or natural disasters. Likewise, the role of culture in defining ways in which mental illness manifests itself has been incorporated into international diagnostic manuals. Nevertheless, change has been slow and many who need mental health services continue to go without diagnosis or treatment and confront ongoing stigma and discrimination. Class sessions and assignments provide students with a chance to explore the critical role played by the social, cultural, and economic context in shaping mental health and illness.
• SPH GH 766: Sexual and Reproductive Health in Disaster Settings
  Disasters (natural and armed conflicts) pose various negative health outcomes to affected populations. In the wake of a disaster women, children and men are especially vulnerable to exploitation, rape, forced marriages, forced pregnancies and other types of human rights abuses. War time male-directed sexual violence has also been increasingly noted among those recruited into militia, detained by armed groups and those going about their daily tasks. This course will expose participants to sexual and reproductive health of populations in disaster settings. The contextual factors affecting populations’ sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in complex emergencies will be explored. Participants will learn how to plan for and implement a set of priority activities known as Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP), and transition from the MISP to comprehensive SRH services which is implemented when the situation is relatively stable. Reproductive health coordination which is an integral part of SRH in emergencies will be analyzed. Disaster risk reduction, advocacy and funding for reproductive health in crises situations will be discussed. Other topics will include: common reproductive health morbidities in conflict situations, reproductive health assessments, programming, monitoring and evaluations, gender-based violence, and rape as a weapon of war.
• SPH GH 770: Poverty, Health, and Development
  Graduate Prerequisites: Successful completion of graduate or undergraduate courses in economi cs and statistics and a working knowledge of Excel software - Poverty, development, and health status remain enduring issues of our time, both in low income and high income countries alike. The goal of this course is to introduce students to the basic concepts and interrelated nature of poverty and development (including the dynamics and measures of poverty, inequality, and global burden of disease). We will then focus on a number of important cross-cutting health challenges that relate closely to levels of poverty and development, such as child health, maternal health, HIV and AIDS, women's empowerment, and climate change. The course draws on a variety of teaching methods, including large and small discussions, student-led workshops, guest lectures, and interactive exercises, as well as a set of team-based activities concentrated on one of the cross-cutting health challenges. Students will gain a deep knowledge of the interwoven nature of changes in poverty, inequities, and health status, and by the end of the class will be experts in at least one of the major topic areas, as they advance their skills in teamwork, engaging their peers on a specific health-related topic, conducting research and in- depth analysis, and disseminating their findings.
• SPH GH 773: Financial Management for Health Programs
  Health care managers must be prepared to talk about financial issues, analyze and interpret data, and make decisions using financial information. This course develops competencies in cost analysis, pricing, budgeting, and reading financial reports in international health settings where financial systems are weak and data not easily available. In addition to using principles of differential and full cost analysis, students gain skills in breakeven analysis and calculating mark-ups. Examples are drawn from hospitals, clinics, and revolving drug funds from developing countries.
• SPH GH 795: Global AIDS Epidemic: Social & Economic Determinants, Impact, & Responses
  Graduate Prerequisites: The MPH core course in social and behavioral science, completed or con current. - AIDS is one of the most important pandemics and human development challenges of our time. This course explores the determinants and impacts of the AIDS pandemic and examines best practices in prevention, care and treatment and impact mitigation. Students will explore the relationship between human rights, gender and vulnerability to HIV; examine effective multi-sectoral responses; and evaluate the benefits and limitations of major multi- and bi-lateral AIDS initiatives. Students will also examine the major debates in the AIDS field and explore different, at times contradictory, perspectives.
• SPH GH 801: How to License a New Vaccine
  Vaccines are one public health's most powerful tools. Vaccines have controlled many of the worst childhood infectious diseases, including bacterial meningitis, measles, diphtheria, and pertussis. Smallpox has been completely eradicated - and polio may soon follow. But where do vaccines come from? The goal of this course is to open the black box and give students a hands-on introduction to the challenging but fascinating process of clinical development, using the development of a new vaccine as the case study. The class is designed as an extended and competitive simulation -- essentially a game with pedagogic purpose. The students assume the role of clinical development teams at a hypothetical pharmaceutical company working to advance the development of a new vaccine. Each year, the class will select a vaccine candidate to enter development. Over the subsequent sessions, the students will advance their vaccine with the ultimate goal of securing licensure by FDA. In this course, students will acquire a deep understanding of clinical development and the regulatory process, will learn about contemporary and historical aspects of vaccine development, clinical epidemiology, and infectious diseases. By the end of the course, students will have a solid understanding of what it takes to bring a vaccine to market, while honing their skills at working in teams, giving professional presentations, and providing and responding to constructive feedback.
• SPH GH 805: Controversies in Global Control and Eradication of Infectious Diseases
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPH717) - Control of infectious diseases and especially pandemics has become urgent public policy. This course focuses active controversies regarding past and current eradication/control campaigns for infectious diseases. We consider the biological, epidemiological, sociological, political, ethical, and programmatic features that allowed the smallpox eradication campaign to succeed, as a template for understanding control of other infectious diseases. Current candidates for global eradication/elimination campaigns that will be covered include SARS CoV-2, smallpox, polio, measles, malaria, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, and dracunculiasis, and any new outbreaks that may be occur during the semester. We will explore and discuss how basic and clinical scientific findings from the primary scientific literature drives our understanding of disease transmission and mitigation strategies. Source material will consist of focused readings of the primary scientific literature, podcast interviews of global program leaders (e.g. GAVI, BMGF), policy memos and group presentations with class discussions. The goal is to inform students of the elements of infectious disease control involving different pathogens, in varied populations, and to achieve an understanding of the rationale behind different control program designs. This will prepare the student to more meaningfully participate in the important policy debate around infectious disease control. This is an advanced level seminar course.
• SPH GH 806: Using Mobile Technologies to Improve Health Outcomes
  Located at the nexus of technology, informatics and public health, mHealth (defined as medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other wireless devices) is rapidly emerging from its pilot stage to become an important component of public health programs. In this course, you will learn how to design, develop, implement and evaluate a mHealth program. You will learn the basic terminology of mHealth programs, how to develop, design and evaluate a mHealth intervention as well as learn the current state of the field and major international mHealth implementers. Using a theoretical base, you will also learn the technical skills of developing an application based on a case study that can be deployed and used on a mobile phone. This course is suited for students who are at least in their second semester and who are familiar or interested in learning more about how mobile technology intersects with the health sector.
• SPH GH 811: Applied Research Methods in Global Health
  Graduate Prerequisites: SPHPH717 or consent of instructor. - The objective of this course is to teach student teams how to collect and analyze data to answer research questions and evaluate health interventions. Student teams will conduct a research study with multiple research methods including a cross-sectional survey and their choice from a variety of qualitative methods. The scope of the research questions addressed will be limited to minimal risk research conducted with students on the Boston University Medical Campus in the space of a semester. Each team will design a questionnaire, administer it, and enter and analyze the data using R. In conjunction with the cross-sectional survey, each team will also use some form of qualitative method, such as in-depth interviews or focus group discussions. The student teams will integrate the results of the cross-sectional survey and the qualitative research and present a report with findings and recommendations to their peers and faculty members. Students completing the course will have the skills to be able to collect and analyze data in a wide variety of settings.