Public Health Commons^™

Hspm 6136 - Healthcare Management, Samuel T. Opoku

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

This course is designed to provide a detailed understanding of the administrative and organization management of healthcare systems, including analysis of management problems, planning, evaluating, operations and policy analysis within the healthcare environment. Selected topics from the healthcare profession of management will also be covered.

Hspm 7235a - Healthcare Law And Ethics, Julie Reagan

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to legal issues in public health and healthcare. Basic legal principles underlying the legal system, governmental regulation, development of legal rules, and how to interact effectively with the legal system as a public health practitioner will be explored. This course has two main purposes: first, to examine the legal context of the relationship between the individual and the community; and second, to understand public health regulation in the context of a market-driven system.

Hspm 7232 - Public Health Finance, Charles Owens

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

This course examines the structure and functioning of the finance components of the public health system. Public health organizations will be discussed within the context of the financial environment that includes financial management, managerial accounting, revenue cycle management, and funding and financial management of grants/contracts. The course also examines key financial tools and analyses for financially related decision making within the principles of strategic management applied to public health organizations amid a dynamic changing environment.

Pubh 8136 01p - Theoretical Perspectives Of The Social And Behavioral Sciences In Public Health, Levi Ross

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

This course will explore social and behavioral science theories, models, and approaches that inform public health research and practice, as well as their philosophical foundations. With emphasis on an ecological perspective, students will apply relevant theories to understanding community health issues and to developing interventions. The course also examines social and behavioral determinants of health equity across the ecological spectrum. In this course students will gain an enhanced understanding of the contributions of the social and behavioral sciences to public health.

Epid 8130 - Field Methods In Epidemiology, Kelly L. Sullivan

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

This course addresses practical aspects of management and implementation of research studies and will focus on the conduct of research consistent with the scientific method. Topics include planning study activities, questionnaire design and implementation, and operations research.

Pubh 7530 - Integrated Capstone Experience, Joseph Telfair

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

CEPH Integrative Experience Requirement: each student shall acquire skills and experience in the application of basic public health concepts and of specialty knowledge to the solution of community health problems and demonstrate integration of knowledge through a culminating experience.

The Student will register for PUBH 7235 A - The Public Health Integrative Experience Section A. This course has been designed to fulfill the requirement that all Master of Public Health degree candidates have the opportunity, as defined by the Council for Education on Public Health (CEPH), “to synthesize and integrate knowledge acquired in course work and other learning experiences …

Pubh 6534 - Health Policy And Management, Julie Reagan

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

The course provides a comprehensive introduction and overview to public health management and administration. The course context is based on managerial decision making and the practical knowledge, tools, processes and strategies required by organizational management. This course overviews the basics of administration, including public health law, human resources management, budgeting and financing, health information management, performance measurement and improvement, ethics, leadership, communication, media relations, and legislative relations in public health; introduced as processes are strategic planning, program development and evaluation, budget preparation, and constituency building for collaboration. Emerging areas of public health policy and management are also discussed as contexts …

Pubh 6541 01f - Biostatistics (Online), Haresh Rochani

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

This course examines statistics in public health and related sciences, including sampling, probability, basic discrete and continuous distributions, descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, categorical data analysis, regression, and correlation. Emphasis will be on the development of critical thinking skills and health data analysis applications with computer software.

Pubh 5520g-01f - Introduction To Public Health (Online), Katie M. Mercer

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

This course is designed to give students a foundation in the core functions of the population-based public health (assessment, policy development and assurance). In addition, this course will examine the 10 essential services of public health within these core functions. Defining effective public health practice and providing knowledge about the technical, social, and political parameters related to public health research and practice are goals for this class. Students will gain an understanding of public health as a broad area of work that applies the benefits of current biomedical, environmental, social, and behavioral knowledge in ways that maximize the health status …

Pubh 5520g - Introduction To Public Health, Katie M. Mercer

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

This course is designed to give students a foundation in the core functions of the population-based public health (assessment, policy development and assurance). In addition, this course will examine the 10 essential services of public health within these core functions. Defining effective public health practice and providing knowledge about the technical, social, and political parameters related to public health research and practice are goals for this class. Students will gain an understanding of public health as a broad area of work that applies the benefits of current biomedical, environmental, social, and behavioral knowledge in ways that maximize the health status …

Phld 9130 - Public Health Research Methods, Yelena N. Tarasenko

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

The course focuses on the concepts and methods of health services and public health research. It is structured around the primary stages of research proposal development. It is designed for DrPH students in the College of Public Health and other graduate or professional students who have successfully completed the appropriate prerequisites. By the completion of this course, Students will acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to write a research proposal, plan for the dissertation, and develop and carry-out research projects.

Epid 7233 - Public Health Surveillance Methods, Jian Zhang

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

This course will provide students with a strong foundation in public health surveillance of both health conditions and risk factors. The course will teach the theory and practice of surveillance supported by many examples of surveillance systems from the developed and developing world. The class will build on and reinforce basic epidemiologic concepts. Students will be given the opportunity to design and evaluate a surveillance system.

Pubh 3130 - Substance Use And Abuse, Jamie S. Cromley

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

This course is required for students majoring in Health and Physical Education and serves as a guided elective for students in the following majors: Health Education and Promotion, Child and Family Development, Exercise Science, Justice Studies, and Recreation. All other majors are welcome.

Pubh 3136a - Principles Of Environmental Health, R. Christopher Rustin

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to and overview of the key areas of environmental health. Using the perspectives of the population and community, the course will cover factors associated with the occurrence of environmental health problems. Students will gain an understanding of the interaction of individuals and communities with the environment, the potential impact on health of environmental agents, and specific applications of concepts of environmental health. The course will consist of a series of lectures case studies, and activities designed to cover principles of the environmental health discipline core. The major topics cover background …

Pubh 3330 -Modifying Health Behaviors, Moya L. Alfonso

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

This course is intended to introduce students to the learning and behavioral science theories that provide a framework for the practice of health education and promotion. Application of the theories to planning and implementing health promotion and education programs for individuals, groups, families, and communities will be emphasized. This course also introduces the students to various approaches to describing, explaining, and predicting health behaviors that have or are perceived to have significant effect on human health. Prerequisite: PUBH 2130

Pubh 3611h - Honors Thesis Seminar I, Ashley D. Walker

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

Provides the student with the opportunity to develop a research topic, research committee formation, and first draft of research proposal.

Pharmacy Use By Dual-Eligible Non-Elderly Veterans With Private Healthcare Insurance, Brian C. Lund, Mary E. Charlton, Alan N. West

Dartmouth Scholarship

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest nationally integrated healthcare system in the United States, operating 168 medical centers and more than 1000 community based outpatient clinics. However, many veterans seek care outside the VHA system, particularly when they are also covered by state or federal programs such as Medicare or Medicaid, or have access to private health insurance, often through employment. Concerted efforts have been made to facilitate communication and coordinate care between VHA and private sector healthcare, but concurrent use of these systems adds to an already fragmented U.S health care system.

An Accredited Local Health Department’S Use Of The Qi Roadmap To Build A Culture Of Quality, Whitney Webber, Vanessa Au, Aimee Reedy, Rocio Luna, Erica Mireles, Teddy Daligga, Laura Brunetto

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

Studies that exist on quality improvement efforts within local health departments indicate that there needs to be clearer approaches for achieving a culture of quality. This study describes how a local health department used the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO’s) Roadmap to an Organizational Culture of Quality Improvement (QI Roadmap) to successfully build a quality culture on its journey to becoming accredited, as reflected in results from a February 2016 survey. Local health departments who invest in and promote QI efforts that are aligned with strategic priorities; establish the necessary infrastructure to regularly track and report …

Why Media Representations Of Corporations Matter For Public Health Policy: A Scoping Review, Heide Weishaar, Lori Dorfman, Nicholas Freudenberg, Benjamin Hawkins, Katherine Smith, Oliver Razumi, Shona Hilton

Publications and Research

Background: Media representations play a crucial role in informing public and policy opinions about the causes of, and solutions to, ill-health. This paper reviews studies analysing media coverage of non-communicable disease (NCD) debates, focusing on how the industries marketing commodities that increase NCD risk are represented.

Methods: A scoping review identified 61 studies providing information on media representations of NCD risks, NCD policies and tobacco, alcohol, processed food and soft drinks industries. The data were narratively synthesized to describe the sample, media depictions of industries, and corporate and public health attempts to frame the media debates.

Results: …

Breast Cancer Fund: Power Mapping For Policy Change, Roxanna Firouzian

Master's Projects and Capstones

The following paper is a summary on a 300-hour fieldwork experience at the Breast Cancer Fund. The Breast Cancer Fund (BCF) is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, CA that partners with organizations across the nation to expand their reach and health education. BCF works to expose and eliminate toxic chemicals in the environment that are linked to breast cancer, immunotoxicity, and reproductive and developmental issues. BCF accomplishes these goals through public awareness and pushing for policy change. In April 2015, Senators Diane Feinstein and Susan Collins introduced the Personal Care Products Safety Act. This is the first bill …

State Space Analysis Of Dominant Structures In Dynamic Social Systems, Jeremy B. Sato

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Many systems involving human relationships are modeled as dynamic systems, as diverse as urban population growth, diffusion of innovations, spread of viruses, and supply chain management. A fundamental assumption is that these systems contain variables which accumulate and deplete over time (people, innovation adoptions, infections, and orders), and whose dynamics are determined by societal rules and human decision making processes. These assumptions allow the system to be formally expressed by ordinary differential equations which are often nonlinear and contain multiple state variables and feedback loops. Analytical methods have been developed to identify the dominant feedback loops which primarily influence the …

The Right For Autonomy, The Duty Of Disclosure And Public Health Considerations – The 2013 Polio Crisis In Israel As A Case Study, Dr. Nili Karako Eyal

Pace Law Review

Despite sharing the same theoretical framework of discussion with other papers, this paper addresses an ethical and legal issue that has received little attention in academic and public discourse: the duty of disclosure in the context of vaccinations. In particular, the paper addresses the question whether public health considerations provide a justification for restricting the duty of disclosure in the case of vaccination.

Delimitating the research question to the issue of disclosure has several implications. First, the decision to vaccinate the population with bOPV as describe above and the decision to adopt a voluntary vaccination policy are not the focus …

Zika Virus, Nurto A. Abdulla

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Zika virus infection, a mosquito-borne flavivirus that causes febrile illness associated with rash, has been rapidly emerging in the Western Hemisphere over the past few months. The virus was rarely identified until outbreaks occurred on Yap Island in the Federated States of Micronesia in 2007, Fresh Polynesia in 2013, and Easter Island in 2014 (Chen & Hamer, 2016). The virus was initially detected in Brazil in 2015, in the northeast, and was subsequently identified in other states and several South American countries, including Colombia, Ecuador, Suriname, Venezuela, French Guyana, and Paraguay. Local transmission has been documented in Central America in …

Have You Counted The Ingredients On Your Child's Lunch Tray?: An Economic Analysis Of Sustainability Initiatives Within The School Lunch Program, Vanessa R. Scalora

Business and Economics Summer Fellows

In 2010, President Obama signed the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, establishing a monetary incentive for schools that served meals following a more rigorous nutritional requirement than standard guidelines. This act is a step in the right direction towards placing more importance on school lunches, however America’s lunchroom practices continue to be environmentally unsustainable, and students absorb this message. The production and transportation of processed cafeteria food contributes to climate change, its packaging is polluting, and its consumption contributes to obesity. The use of premade foods and sales from vending machines increase as lunch times grow ever shorter. In addition, …

Injury-Related Infant Deaths: A State Analysis Of A Public Health, Health Care, Policy Network, Sharla Smith, Xi Zhu, Mary Aitken

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

Introduction: This research examines a state-level public health, health care, and policy network focused on efforts to reduce unintentional childhood injuries. The network is composed of 12 organizations: four public health, four health care, and four policy.

Methods: A 23-item survey was administered to the 12 organizations between January and June 2015. Analyses were conducted using HyperResearch and UCInet 6.

Results: More organizations worked together on assessment and planning efforts that identify and quantify the nature of at-risk infants in the community and strategies for reducing injury-related infant deaths. The Injury Prevention Center, the most central organization, interacted most frequently …

Assessing The Health Impact Of Transnational Corporations: Its Importance And A Framework, Frances E. Baum, David M. Sanders, Matt Fisher, Julia Anaf, Nicholas Freudenberg, Sharon Friel, Ronald Labontée, Leslie London, Carlos Monteiro, Alex Scott-Samuel, Amit Sen

Publications and Research

Background: The adverse health and equity impacts of transnational corporations’ (TNCs) practices have become central public health concerns as TNCs increasingly dominate global trade and investment and shape national economies. Despite this, methodologies have been lacking with which to study the health equity impacts of individual corporations and thus to inform actions to mitigate or reverse negative and increase positive impacts.

Methods: This paper reports on a framework designed to conduct corporate health impact assessment (CHIA), developed at a meeting held at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in May 2015.

Results: On the basis of the deliberations …

Validation Of The Kinyarwanda-Version Short-Form Leeds Dyspepsia Questionnaire And Short-Form Nepean Dyspepsia Index To Assess Dyspepsia Prevalence And Quality-Of-Life Impact In Rwanda, Arcade Nkurunziza, Vincent Dusabejambo, Kelly Everhart, Steve Bensen, Tim Walker

Dartmouth Scholarship

We aimed to develop and validate Kinyarwanda versions of Short-Form Leeds Dyspepsia Questionnaire (SF-LDQ) and Short-Form Nepean Dyspepsia Index (SF-NDI) to measure the frequency and severity of dyspepsia and associated quality-of-life impact in Rwanda.

Revolutionizing The Patient Package Insert With Infographics, Mitchell R. Cunningham

BU Well

Communication is critical for all aspects of public health. In the pharmaceutical industry the patient package insert is relied on to relay important information to patients. However, there are many intrinsic flaws with the patient package insert that present themselves in the vast number of medical injuries patients incur. This article dissects the root problems of the patient package insert in the modern world and analyzes the potential of utilizing infographics to combat these issues.

Public Health Spending And Its Contributions To The Total Spend On Health, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

This presentation provides an overview of recent research on governmental public health expenditures and their interaction with medical spending, carried out through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supported initiatives on Public Health Services and Systems Research (PHSSR) and the new Systems for Action research program. This work illustrates the value of tracking resource use across multiple sectors that influence health and well-being in American communities. As such, this work can inform the ongoing dialogue about methodologies for summarizing total health spending for the U.S. and for state and local areas.

Summary Of Results From The 2016 National Health Security Preparedness Index, Glen P. Mays, Michael T. Childress, Pierre Martin Dominique Zephyr, Anna Goodman Hoover

Health Management and Policy Reports

The National Health Security Preparedness Index tracks the nation’s progress in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters and other large-scale emergencies that pose risks to health and well-being in the United States. Because health security is a responsibility shared by many different stakeholders in government and society, the Index combines measures from multiple sources and perspectives to offer a broad view of the health protections in place for nation as a whole and for each U.S. state. The Index identifies strengths as well as gaps in the protections needed to keep people safe and healthy in the face …