Course Sequence - MSPH in Data Science in Global Health
Fall 1
Includes 13 total credit hours.
Students must also take DATA 515: Introduction to Data Science I.
For non-BIOS Students Only. The goal of the course is to will provide an introduction to R in organizing, analyzing, and visualizing data. Once you've completed this course you'll be able to enter, save, retrieve, summarize, display and analyze data.
Prerequisites: BIOS 500, BIOS 506, BIOS 508 or permission of instructor. In this course, you'll learn about the basic structure of relational databases and how to read and write simple and complex SQL statements and advanced data manipulation techniques. By the end of this course, you'll have a solid working knowledge of structured query language. You'll feel confident in your ability to write SQL queries to create tables; retrieve data from single or multiple tables; delete, insert, and update data in a database; and gather significant statistics from data stored in a database. This course will teach key concepts of Structured Query Language (SQL), and gain a solid working knowledge of this powerful and universal database programming language. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the language of relational databases: Structured Query Language (SQL). Topics covered include: Entity-Relationship modeling, the Relational Model, the SQL language: data retrieval statements, data manipulation.
Prerequisite/concurrent: BIOS 500. Emphasizes the concepts and premises of the science of epidemiology. Methods of hypothesis formulation and evaluation are stressed. Techniques for quantifying the amount of disease (or other health indicator) in populations are introduced, followed by discussion of epidemiologic study designs useful for identifying etiologic factors and other relevant correlates of disease. Students gain facility with the calculation of basic epidemiologic measures of frequency, association, and impact. The concepts of random variability, bias, and effect modification are examined in detail. The use of stratified analysis, including Mantel-Haenszel techniques, is explored. Inferences from study results are discussed. Students are required to analyze and critique studies from the current medical and scientific literature.
Online Asynchronous. 1 hour online module addressing 4 of the 12 CEPH required Foundational Knowledge items. The module will begin with an introduction to a "Public Health Perspective followed by the 4 items of foundational knowledge.
Spring 1
Includes 13 total credit hours.
Students must also take DATA 516: Introduction to Data Science II.
Prerequisites: BIOS 500, 506, or 508 and (BIOS 544 or BIOS 545 or EPI 534) or permission of instructor. The elective course gives an introduction to machine learning techniques and theory, with a focus on its use in practical applications. The Applied Machine Learning course teaches you a wide-ranging set of techniques of supervised and unsupervised machine learning approaches using R as the programming language.
Prerequisites: BIOS 544 or BIOS 545, R programming experience needed or permission of the instructor. This course is an elective for Masters and PhD students interested in learning some fundamental tools used in modern data science. Together, the tools covered in the course will provide the ability to develop fully reproducible pipelines for data analysis, from data processing and cleaning to analysis to result tables and summaries. By the end of the course students will have learned the tools necessary to: develop reproducible workflows collaboratively (using version control based on Git/GitHub), execute these workflows on a local computer (using command line operations, RMarkdown, and GNU Makefiles), execute the workflows in a containerized environment allowing end-to-end reproducibility (using Docker), and execute the workflow in a cloud environment (using Amazon Web Services EC2 and S3 services). Along the way, we will cover a few other tools for data science including best coding practices, basic python, software unit testing, and continuous integration services.
EH 500 is a survey course designed to introduce public health students to basic concepts of environmental sciences, to the methods used to study the interface of health and the environment, to the health impacts of various environmental processes and exposures, and to the public health approach to controlling or eliminating environmental health risks. To address these concepts, basic environmental health principles (exposure assessment, environmental toxicology, environmental epidemiology, risk assessment), as well as specific environmental health issues including water and air pollution, hazardous chemical/waste exposures, climate change, and environmental drivers of disease ecology, will be covered.
Prerequisites: None. GH511 is the first in the two-semester Program Cycle sequence and is typically taken in the student's second semester. This course will provide students with theoretical principles and practical skills for designing and managing global health programs and projects. Sessions will focus on core activities following the project life cycle, including community engagement, formative research, situational analysis, theory of change, project design, principles of project and financial management, and ethical considerations and challenges. This course uses a variety of approaches to foster the development of practical skills in program design and management including lectures, interactive group sessions, discussions with experts, and task-based assignments. This course is a prerequisite for GH512 Program Cycle 2: Monitoring and Evaluation of Global Health Programs. The course is taken for a letter grade.
PUBH students will join students from health professional programs across the Woodruff Health Sciences Center to receive didactic training to perform effectively on interprofessional teams and to apply leadership and management principles to address a relevant public health issue. Interprofessional teams will compete in a health challenge competition designed to address public health and clinical issues of importance to the Atlanta community.
Fall 2
Includes 5 credit hours of required courses and 5 credit hours of approved electives.
Provides students with the technical skills to conceptualize and design process and impact evaluations of international public health programs or projects. Helps students understand the role of monitoring and evaluation in policy analysis, planning, program design and management.
Hubert Department of Global Health
Required for all MPH students. Introduces students to the US health care system, both the public and private sector. Examines the structure of the health system, current topics in health care reform, the policy process, and advocacy for public health.
Spring 2
Includes 9 credit hours of required courses and 3 credit hours of approved electives.
Students take either GH 598 or GH 599R.
Provides the student with basic knowledge about the behavioral sciences as they are applied to public health. Content includes an overview of each discipline and current issues for students who are not enrolled in the BSHE MPH Program.
Prerequisites: GEH, GH, and GLEPI students only.
The goal of the course is to equip students with critical perspectives to address current and future global health challenges and opportunities as public health professionals and global citizens in this increasingly interdependent world. The course explores historical milestones, actors, assumptions, context and theories driving selected global health priorities in policy, programs and research. To do this, the course will enhance the skills of critical thinking, assessment of evidence from multiple perspectives and application of evidence in formulation of policies, programs and research priorities. A recurring theme throughout the course is that there are common global drivers influencing the health of populations and that cross-cutting issues of equity and systems transcend settings.
An Applied Practice Experience (APE) is a unique opportunity that enables students to apply practical skills and knowledge learned through coursework to a professional public health setting that complements the student's interests and career goals. The APE must be supervised by a Field Supervisor and requires approval from an APE Advisor designated by the student's academic department at RSPH.
Prerequisites: GH501, GH502, GH511, GH512, GH521, GH531 and GH522 or GH 532 (some may be taken concurrently). GH 598 is the GH Capstone Integrative Learning Experience and is taken in the student's final semester. The Capstone provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate skills acquired in prior coursework. Each capstone section will differ in content, based on instructor expertise, but all will require integration of deliverables from the HDGH Foundational, Program Cycle, and Quantitative and Qualitative sequences. At the end of the capstone course, each student will submit an individual deliverable in response to a global health challenge or opportunity. The deliverable may describe a program implementation plan or a formative research plan that will inform a future project, program or policy. All Capstone sections share the same underlying structure, of 10-15 students working closely with the instructor. The course is graded as Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.
Hubert Department of Global Health
All students in the HDGH must complete a thesis project in order to fulfill the requirements of the MPH degree. This project is a rigorous academic requirement; as the culmination of the MPH experience, it is an independent, theory-based inquiry in which the student applies knowledge and skills acquired during the MPH program to the scholarly study of a public health problem. In HDGH, the thesis project may take the form of either a Special Studies Project (e.g. a deliverable for an organization) or a Research Project (e.g. systematic review, analysis of primary or secondary data) using quantitative, qualitative or other methodologies and presented in a traditional style or manuscript style.
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