International Health

MPH in International Health

The Master’s of Public Health with a concentration in International Health provides students with the skills and knowledge necessary to work effectively in overseas settings. Students have the flexibility to combine coursework from a wide variety of fields to gain skills in program design, management, evaluation, and research, along with core international health knowledge to address the social, cultural, and epidemiological challenges that affect the global burden of disease. Graduates are equipped to assume careers in relief and development, consulting, and research, as well as government service, both domestically and abroad, or to pursue further study.

Concentration Requirements

All IH concentrators must meet the school-wide core requirements. In addition, they must take at least 16 credits in International Health. A minimum of 8 of the 16 credits must come from courses offered by the IH Department. Because IH 704 and IH 720 count as core course credit, they cannot be applied toward IH concentration credit.

Additionally, IH concentrators must take at least one of the following IH courses: IH 702, IH 703, IH 704, or IH 720. We strongly recommend that they take all four of these courses.

MPH Course Electives

The following courses may be applied toward IH concentration credit. Schedule is subject to change.

  • IH 702 Skills in Critical Analysis and Evidence-based Writing for Public Health Professionals
  • IH 703 Global Public Health: History, Approaches & Practices
  • IH 707 Kenya Field Practicum in Public Health and the Environment
  • IH 715 Antiretroviral Program Management and Adherence Issues in Low-Resource Settings
  • IH 731 Leadership and Negotiations
  • IH 733 Managing  Teams and Groups for the New or Emerging Leader
  • IH 735 Gender, Sexuality, Power, and Inequity in International Health
  • IH 737 International Organizational Behavior: A Cross-Cultural Approach
  • IH 738 Negotiating With Positive Power
  • IH 741 International Health Consultation Techniques
  • IH 744 Design & Implementation of International Health Programs
  • IH 745 Monitoring and Evaluation of International Health Programs
  • IH 753 Beyond Reproductive Health: Women’s Health in Developing Countries
  • IH 755 Managing Disasters and Complex Humanitarian Emergencies
  • IH 757 Fighting Corruption  Through Accountability and  Transparency
  • IH 758 Mental Health in Disaster Settings
  • IH 762 Essentials of Economics and Financing for International Health
  • IH 766 Sexual and Reproductive Health in Disaster Settings
  • IH 770 Poverty, Health & Development
  • IH 771 Topics in International Health
  • IH 773 Financial Management for International Health
  • IH 777 International Health Culminating Experience Writing Seminar
  • IH 781 Nutrition and Public Health in Lower Income Countries
  • IH 790 Leading Organizations to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals for Health
  • IH 795 Global AIDS Epidemic: Social and Economic Determinants, Impact, and Responses
  • IH 802 Leading Community Health Initiatives: Medicine and Public Health as Partners
  • IH 803 Antimicrobial Resistance: Facing a Future without Effective Medicines
  • IH 805 Controversies in Global Control and Eradication of Infectious Diseases
  • IH 808 Research Proposal Development: A Practical Approach to  Team Grant Writing
  • IH 811 Applied Research Methods in International Health
  • IH 820 Global Issues in Pharmaceutical Policy and Programming
  • IH 854 From Data to Dashboards: Building Excel Skills to Support Health Program Decisions
  • IH 870 Managing Disasters and Complex Humanitarian Emergencies
  • IH 871 Advanced  Topics in International Health
  • IH 880 Confronting Non-Communicable Diseases in the Developing World: Risk Factors, Costs, and Consequences
  • IH 881 Evidence-Based Program Design for Reproductive Health
  • IH 885 Global  Trade, Intellectual Property, and Public Health
  • IH 887 Planning and Managing Maternal and Child Health Programs in Developing Countries—with an Emphasis on Child Health
  • IH 888 Seminar on International Health Policy Issues
  • IH 890 Quantitative Methods and Modeling for Public Health Decision Making
  • IH 941 Directed Study in International Health
  • IH 942 Directed Research in International Health
  • HC 840, 841, 842 PIHP Program in International Health Practice in the Philippines (maximum of 8 credits may be applied to IH concentration credits)
  • EH 714 Public Health Response to Emergencies
  • EH 745 Wastewater and Health/Sustainable Sanitation
  • EH 780 Great Calamities and  Their Consequences in Public Health
  • EH 806 Development and the Environment
  • EP 755 Infectious Disease Epidemiology
  • EP 764 Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in the Developed/Developing World
  • EP 784 The Epidemiology of  Tuberculosis in the Developed and Developing World
  • MC 802 Leading Community Health Initiatives
  • PH 825 Role of Human and Environmental Factors in Emerging and Re-Emerging Infectious Diseases
  • PM 735 Health Care Finance
  • PM 736 Human Resource Management in Public Health

Areas of Emphasis

The Department of International Health believes that students should graduate with basic analytic and public health skills (addressed by the School’s core courses) and with sufficient in-depth knowledge to be employable in an international health program. Students have the option to focus their course of study by taking at least 8 credits of international health courses within one of five emphasis areas. For more details about the following areas, please see the International Health Concentrator’s Guide.

  • Infectious and non-communicable diseases
  • Research methods and decision analysis
  • Sex, sexuality, gender, and health
  • Health program management
  • Managing disasters and complex humanitarian emergencies

Culminating Experience

All students must complete a culminating experience (CE). The CE provides students with an opportunity to synthesize and integrate core public health skills taught in the International Health curriculum. Students may begin the culminating experience once they have earned 25 credits or more. The department offers four options for completing the culminating experience: a policy memo, a journal article, an independent project, and a class-based research/concentration paper. Students must sign a contract regarding the choice of culminating experience and submit the contract and drafts according to the timeline in the International Health Concentrator’s Guide, available on the SPH website. All written work will involve a multi-draft process. Most students write and submit three drafts to their advisor or another faculty mentor for comments and suggestions. A fourth version is often necessary to complete the paper. In order to successfully complete the culminating experience the student must demonstrate application of a broad range of core skills from across the curriculum and synthesis and integration of knowledge.

Students can access the most current CE guidelines at http://blackboard.bu.edu under the IH MPH Orientation (ongoing courses) website on the Course Documents page.

Options for the Culminating Experience

Option 1: Policy Memo

This option is related to the trip report that students produce as part of the IH practicum requirement. Students focus on a policy- or program-related issue relevant to the host organization, gather and analyze evidence and background information, and propose recommendations.

The advisor will approve the policy memo. The policy memo should be 2,500 to 3,000 words long (6–10 pages single-spaced). The audience will be the organization for whom the student worked during his or her practicum.

Multiple drafts of the policy memo are critiqued by an IH faculty member. Students are not required to register for the policy memo option. Those who choose to may register for either IH 777 or IH 941, a directed study.

Option 2: Journal Article

In this option the student will develop and submit a manuscript to an academic journal for publication. The department will issue a call for submission three times a year to accommodate the January, May, and September graduation cycles. In response to the call for submission, students intending to participate in this option will submit paper proposals consisting of a problem purpose statement, an outline of the intended analytical methods, details about the data set to be used, and a timeline for completion. An IH faculty committee will approve projects based upon the soundness of the proposal and the feasibility of getting the project completed within the intended timeline.

Students applying for this option must have a faculty mentor from the IH department who will agree to work intensively with the student throughout the semester. The faculty mentor will need to sign off on the project proposal formally, and plan regular meetings with the student throughout the writing process. The mentor’s role will be similar to that of a senior author or scientific director—giving direction and advice to the student—but the student will do the actual analysis and writing.

In order to be eligible to submit a proposal, the student must have completed 32 credit hours at the end of the semester in which the proposal is submitted.

Submission of the paper to a journal is necessary for successful completion. The manuscript will be submitted to the target journal at the end of the semester, with both the student and mentor as coauthors, as appropriate.

The student will be required to register for this option as a 2-credit directed study (IH 941) with an IH faculty mentor.

Option 3: Independent Project

This option is intended to encourage creative and innovative projects that do not fit into the previous two options. Similar to the previous option, students will be invited to submit proposals three times a year. The selection committee will entertain any fully articulated proposal that meets the guidelines for a Culminating Experience as outlined above. Possible examples of independent projects might include film documentaries, draft legislation, advocacy campaigns, etc.

The student will be required to register for this option as a 2-credit directed study (IH 941), with an IH faculty mentor.

Option 4: Concentration Paper/Class-Based Research

Students who enroll in IH 777 will have the option of completing a more traditional research paper. Guidelines for the concentration paper can be found in the IH Culminating Experience Guidelines, in the IH Concentrator Guide.

Culminating Experience Deadline

Students are expected to complete their Culminating Experience in the same semester in which they finish their coursework. Students must submit a Culminating Experience Contract at the beginning of the semester. Unfinished projects are subject to the incomplete grade policy. International students must be in compliance with visa regulations and any student who will not finish his/her paper in time should speak with the Academic Services Coordinator as soon as possible.

DrPH of Public Health

See: www-test.bu.edu/academics/archive/2010-2011/sph/programs/public-healt/