Courses

The course descriptions below are correct to the best of our knowledge as of June 2010. Instructors reserve the right to update and/or otherwise alter course descriptions as necessary after publication. The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. The Course Rotation Guide lists the expected semester a course will be taught. Paper copies are also available in the BUSPH Registrar’s office. Please refer to the published schedule of classes for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• SPH IH 741: International Health Consultation Techniques
  This course will prepare students for consulting and technical assistance assignments in developing countries. Students learn to analyze the pros and cons of potential consulting assignments and prepare proposals. The potential conflicts between donors/sponsors and the agency receiving the consulting services will be considered. Assignments considered include financial analysis, operational improvements, training and program evaluation. Cross cultural issues and the problems of operating in remote areas are discussed. This course is for foreign nationals returning to their own countries and US citizens/residents who will seek international assignments with USAID contractors or NGOs. During this intensive one week course, students prepare a proposal in response to an actual RFP (Request for Proposal) as well as a presentation summarizing findings of a major consulting or research assignment Students interested in consulting in the US should take PM741.
• SPH IH 744: Design & Implementation of International Health Programs
  Developing a careful program design centered on an evidence-based needs analysis is the first step to successful program development. Without a sound plan of action, misdirection and inefficient use of staff time and funds can thwart the most conceptually innovative program. In addition, effective implementation, in accordance with good design, requires having the right resources efficiently employed in a well-organized and timely fashion. The first course of the certificate offers participants the essential skills needed to design and subsequently implement programs that achieve measurable public health objectives. The goal of the course is to train participants to design and implement a successful public health intervention. Students will learn from case studies, in-class exercises, and individual and group assignments how to design, obtain funding for, implement and report on a public health intervention of their own choosing. Class meets May 17-May 28, 2010.
• SPH IH 745: Monitoring and Evaluation of International Health Programs
  There is consensus within the international 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.
• SPH IH 753: Beyond Reproductive Health: Women’s Health in Developing Countries
  While reproductive health problems are major contributors to the burden of disease among women, in this course we will examine a variety of other causes of mortality and morbidity among women in developing countries. We will also investigate the many ways in which social factors affect women’s exposure to health hazards and access to health care. Topics will include occupational health, smoking, mental health, infectious and chronic diseases, and violence. This course is suitable for new MPH students.
• SPH IH 755: Managing Disasters and Complex Humanitarian Emergencies
  This course will provide students with a solid introductory understanding of disasters and complex emergencies and introduce practical responses and interventions. By the end of the course, students will be able to describe human and natural emergencies and their main causes, articulate and conduct public health assessments, prioritize needs, and plan immediate and long-term interventions. Class discussions will also focus on analyzing and anticipating the consequences of emergencies.
• SPH IH 757: Fighting Corruption Through Accountability & Transparency
  Corruption and lack of accountability in government are concerns in all countries, but they are especially critical problems in developing and transitioning countries where public resources are already scarce and corruption can cripple growth and development. In international health work, most public health practitioners will encounter corruption at some point and will need to make ethical and management decisions about how to work within corrupt systems and how to prevent corruption from occurring. This course is designed to introduce participants to the problem of corruption and provide them with skills for assessing vulnerabilities to corruption in the health sector. Topics covered include corruption risks in drug procurement and supply, medical conflicts of interest, informal payments, and financial corruption. Participants will acquire the confidence, knowledge, and skills needed to become effective advocates for anti-corruption strategies and health system reforms.
• SPH IH 758: Mental Health in Disaster Settings
  War and violent conflict inflict significant mental trauma on survivors: people living in post-conflict settings are exposed to constant stresses in their daily life and are often subjected to violence, sexual assault, imprisonment and torture. The effects may persist for years afterward, leading to substance abuse, depression, social and economic difficulties or suicide. Incidents of genocide, mass murder or starvation are particularly damaging to the human psyche. This course will cover the goals and structure of emergency programs that attend to the mental health needs of survivors of violent conflict, from the point of view of the program manager, but including an overview of the psychology of trauma and of the principle psychotherapeutic techniques used in the field by disaster relief agencies. Students will be introduced to variables affecting vulnerability and resilience including age, gender, culture and role—as relief workers, soldiers, perpetrators, etc. Participants will also learn about emergency interventions with severe stress reactions and preventative care to avert long-term problems, and how to plan for, implement, monitor, and evaluate mental health interventions and psychosocial programs for communities that have suffered collectively.
• SPH IH 762: Essentials of Economics and Finance for International Health
  This course is an introduction to the essential concepts and tools of health economics and financing with application to the particular challenges facing transitional and developing countries. The course does not assume prior training in economics and will provide an introduction to the conceptual underpinnings of health economics, highlighting those concepts that will be most useful in applied policy settings. Case studies will focus on practical application to current international health financing policy problems.
• SPH IH 766: Reproductive & Sexual Health in Disaster Settings
  Of the millions of people displaced by armed conflict around the world, 65-80% are women and children. In recent armed conflicts, women have been the targets of exploitation, rape, forced marriage, forced pregnancy, and other types of gender-based violence. These violent acts have implications on women’s reproductive health. This course will expose students to the issues affecting the reproductive and sexual health of women in conflict and post-conflict situations. The context of recent conflicts and their effects on women’s health will be analyzed. 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. Specific examples will be drawn from the wars that occurred in former Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Southern Sudan, and the ongoing war in Darfur, Western Sudan. This course complements the Managing Disasters and Complex Humanitarian Emergencies course (IH870). Participants in that course are highly encouraged to enroll in this course.
• SPH IH 770: Poverty, Health, and Development
  Poverty, Health and Development is the core International Public Health course for master’s students in the new University-wide Global Development Policy Program. The course also serves as an elective course for students in public health. The goal of this course is for students to explore the relationships between poverty, health, and development in low-income countries. While not a methods course per se, methods in public health, economics, statistics, and quantitative impact evaluation will be introduced and used throughout the course.
• SPH IH 771: Topics in International Health
  This topics courses addresses a variety of topics pertinent to International Health. See the print or web-based School of Public Health semester schedule for more information. The topic in fall 2009 is Medical Anthropology in Public Health, 2 cr. The pre-requisite for the fall course is SPH SB721 or IH720.
• SPH IH 773: Financial Management for International Health
  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. Students who took IH 763 cannot take IH 773 for degree credit.
• SPH IH 777: International Health Culminating Experience Writing Seminar
  This seminar course has two main purposes: first, to enable participants to respond to one another's work, examine issues in the writing process, make improvements from draft to draft, and complete a well-researched, well-argued concentration paper; second, to explore issues in international health that are the focus of their research and emerge with a greater understanding of the questions they raise for policy and practice. Papers go through three drafts, and students will have the opportunity to give and receive feedback in peer review sessions. Background readings and regular participation in class critiques and discussions are required. Students must be working on their culminating experience to be enrolled in the class.
• SPH IH 781: Nutrition and Public Health in Lower Income Countries
  This course introduces students to public health nutrition in the developing world. Topics include 1) the major nutritional challenges facing low-income countries (including macro- and micronutrient deficiencies, HIV and infant feeding, nutrition in emergencies and obesity) 2) nutrition through the life cycle 3) potential causes of poor nutrition including health behavior, societal norms, and economic factors 4) innovative approaches to addressing undernutrition 5) monitoring and evaluation efforts to track changes in nutritional status and feeding behaviors, and 6) policy-level responses to malnutrition, especially among women and children. While some class time is devoted to clinical nutrition, equal emphasis is placed on behavioral and programmatic issues including successful community-based nutrition interventions, national and international responses to under-nutrition and how these can be coordinated. This course also briefly reviews the evidence base for each approach. By the end of this course, students will be able to broadly describe the literature on international nutrition and to use Excel to clean and analyze data on infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices.
• SPH IH 790: Leading Organizations to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals for Health
  Meeting the challenge of the UN Millennium Development Declaration, “to promote a comprehensive approach and a coordinated strategy, tackling many problems simultaneously across a broad front’ will require inspired managers with strong leadership skills. Through collaboration with Management Sciences for Health (MSH), a leading management and health NGO, this course will prepare health managers, consultants, and donors to lead organizations to face priority health challenges and achieve results. Students will learn practical leadership and management skills and apply these skills in the complex conditions of health in the developing world. Students will have opportunities to work in teams to develop leadership practices, values and methods needed to lead and manage groups and organizations. The center piece of the program involves working virtually with an MSH field team in Africa, Asia, or Latin America to assess the current situation related to an MDG goal, develop a leadership challenge in collaboration with the field team, and make action plans to meet the challenge within existing resource constraints. In addition, the course provides opportunities to work with and learn about the work currently being done by Management Sciences for Health. Class meets 7/6-7/29/10.
• SPH IH 795: Global AIDS Epidemic: Social & Economic Determinants, Impact, & Responses
  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 IH 802: Leading Community Health Initiatives: Medicine and Public Health as Partners
  This course is designed for medical and public health students who seek the leadership skills needed to develop and implement community health initiatives. Students will work in theory and practice to address the question, “How can we as young physicians and public health professionals work with community partners to lead change for better health?” By the end of the course students will be able to work in teams to apply the Challenge Model to develop and implement a community-based health initiative in the context of and in partnership with a community health center or organization. Students may not take IH802 & MC802 for degree credit.
• SPH IH 803: Antimicrobial Resistance: Facing a Future without Effective Medicines?
  The global emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), coupled with a weak “pipeline” of new antimicrobials means there is a frightening possibility that we and our children will live in a world without effective antimicrobial agents. This course introduces students to the ecology, epidemiology,and health policy aspects of resistance to antimicrobial agents against important bacterial and viral infectious agents, providing a framework for considering the important local, national and international scientific and policy questions. Students will critically analyze appropriate research and programmatic approaches that could be effective in addressing this major public health problem. Specific topics include the basic physiology/ecology and evolutionary biology of AMR; mechanisms of resistance in agents of diseases such as TB, HIV, malaria; epidemiology/behavioral and environmental factors promoting and ameliorating resistance and the ecology of resistance/antimicrobials in the food chain. Students will also explore the clinical and economics impacts of AMR and local, national and international health policies for surveillance, prevention and control.
• SPH IH 805: Controversies in Global Control and Eradication of Infectious Diseases
  This is an advanced level seminar course taught by two highly experienced public health researchers with special expertise in infectious diseases. It focuses on areas of active controversy regarding past and current eradication/control campaigns. This class will consider the biological, epidemiological, sociological, political, ethical, and programmatic features that allowed the smallpox eradication campaign to succeed. Other diseases that are currently candidates for global eradication campaigns that will be covered in this class include polio, measles, malaria, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, and dracunculiasis. Public health policy decisions ultimately rest on basic and clinical scientific research. This course approaches this topic through a series of focused readings drawn from the primary scientific literature. Our goal is to prepare students to better participate in these debates themselves.
• SPH IH 808: Research Proposal Development: A Practical Approach to Team Grant Writing
  The main objective of this course is to equip students to develop a research project in a developing country. The scope of the proposal can include baseline data collection for needs assessment, monitoring and evaluation of an existing program, or identification of predictors associated with health or disease outcomes. Students learn practical skills associated with writing a proposal including creating project objectives, sampling methods, calculating sample-size, developing a work plan and budgeting. Students work in teams throughout the semester to develop the proposal. Proposals from this class have successfully competed for funding.

Note that this information may change at any time.

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