Course Sequence - Online Part-Time MPH in Health Policy
Fall 1
Required for HPM students. Examines the formulation and implementation of health policy in the US health care system. Emphasizes the application of analytical contributions from health economics, health services research, and other policy-related disciplines to current issues in health care delivery, organization, and financing.
Introduces basic supply and demand concepts applied to health care markets, using microeconomic theory. Topics of discussion include what does or does not make health care distinctive as an economic good, the market for health care in theory and practice, and economic proposals to overcome existing market failure.
Department of Health Policy and Management
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
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: HPM 500 or HPM 501, and HPM 521. Examines the theory, methods, and applications of economic evaluations (cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit, cost-utility) of health care programs, using examples from both developing and developed countries. Applications range from economic evaluations of medical procedures to economic evaluations of intervention programs in developing countries.
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
This course is designed to teach students the fundamentals of applied statistical data analysis. Students successfully completing this course will be able to: choose appropriate statistical analyses for a variety of data types; perform exploratory data analyses; implement commonly used one and two-sample hypothesis testing and confidence interval methods for continuous variables; perform tests of association for categorical variables; conduct correlation and simple linear regression analyses; produce meaningful reports of statistical analyses and provide sound interpretations of analysis results. Students will be able to implement the statistical methods learned using SAS and JMP software on personal computers.
The lab portion of BIOS 500 is designed with two purposes in mind: 1) to illustrate concepts and methods presented in the lectures using hands-on demonstrations and 2) to introduce SAS, a widely used statistical software package, as a data analysis tool. By the end of the semester, you should be able to produce and interpret statistical output for methods learned in BIOS 500 lecture.
Required for HPM students. Introduces the theory and principles of management. Topic areas include motivation, leadership, organizational change, human resources administration, organizational theory, strategic planning, and management control systems. Teaches practical applications of management theory through case studies and group discussions.
Spring 2
Emphasizes the underlying concepts of the epidemiological approach, stressing study design. Discusses the calculation and interpretation of measures of frequency, association, and public health impact. Discusses sources of study error including the influence of chance, bias, confounding, and effect modification.
Prerequisites: HPM 500 or HPM 501 and HPM 521. Focuses on the principles of public finance to enable students to evaluate tax subsidies and revenue structure used to finance health care with comparisons to alternative structures. Students apply the concepts of equity and efficiency in financing health care at the national and state levels.
Department of Health Policy and Management
Fall 3
In addition to the courses below, students should take 1 to 2 credit hours of electives.
Pre-requisites: GEH, GH, and GLEPI students may not enroll unless with departmental permission.
The overarching objective of GH 500 is to equip students with critical perspectives and resources that they will need as public health professionals and global citizens in our increasingly inter-connected and interdependent world. The course introduces students to: (1) fundamental cross-cutting themes that contextualize contemporary global health issues; and (2) selected health topical areas such as maternal and child health, pandemics, and non-communicable diseases. The course provides an overview of the past, present, and expected future directions of global health.
Introduces the basic accounting concepts, analytical techniques, decision-making tools, and vocabulary needed for effective management of health care organizations. The first part of the course is devoted to the fundamentals of financial accounting, including preparing and interpreting key financial statements. The second part covers the generation, use, and interpretation of accounting information for making managerial decisions
Department of Health Policy and Management
Spring 3
In addition to the courses below, students should take 1 to 2 credit hours of electives.
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.
Introduces students to the sources of American legal authority for public health actions, such as the United States Constitution, state and federal statutes and regulations, and the common law, as well as the division of legal authority between the federal government and the states and legal protections for individual rights. Addresses topics such as the philosophical underpinnings of American law, the structure and function of the Constitution, the regulation of health risks, public health governance, and the role of law in policy making. Through several case studies, explores the law of vaccination, communicable disease control, injury prevention, and other public health activities, while giving students an experience in legal thinking.
Department of Health Policy and Management
Fall 4
In addition to the courses below, students should take 1 to 2 credit hours of electives.
Description Prerequisites: HPM 501, HPM 510, HPM 521, HPM 522, HPM 523, HPM 561 or 557. Students will learn how to use the tools of economics, statistics, and decision analysis to predict the impact of yet-to-be enacted state and federal policy changes. Topics covered include market failures, cost-benefit analysis, interpretation of results from observational studies, discounting, inflation adjustment, measurement of willingness-to-pay, and writing for non-technical audiences. During the course of the semester, students will develop a policy analysis on a topic of their choosing. Some examples of topics covered in students' analyses include: caps on non-economic damages in malpractice suits, mandated coverage of contraceptives by insurance plans, abortion bans, and increases in tobacco excise taxes.
Department of Health Policy and Management
Spring 4
In addition to the courses below, students should take 1 to 2 credit hours of electives.
Prerequisites: HPM 501, HPM 510, HPM 521, HPM 522, HPM 523, HPM 561 or 557 and HPM 576. This class will teach students how to conduct public health policy analyses that examine options to address emerging issues, conduct analysis of the options and communicate recommendations.
Department of Health Policy and Management
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.