PH 140:

Epidemiology/Biostatistics: Part 2

(4 Credits)

The epidemiology component of this course extends the basic principles of epidemiology from PH139 and introduces additional basic principles of epidemiology, including measurement precision and accuracy, use of statistical testing, and interval estimation in epidemiological studies. Taught as lectures and assigned exercises, this course stresses the practical applications of epidemiological techniques. The biostatistical topics in this course include exploring and organizing data, life tables, nonparametric analysis, sampling distributions and statistical inference, statistical estimations, hypothesis testing, sample size and power, two-sample comparisons, multiple comparisons, association and correlation, and simple linear regression.

Core Requirement for MPH and MS
Prerequisites: PH 139

PH 177:

MPH and MS Capstone Course Series 1

(2 Credits)

The overarching goal of these courses, a series of three capstone seminars taught during the academic year, is to guide and support students throughout the completion of an academically robust, high quality culminating Capstone Project.  Each week the class will meet briefly as a single group, followed by smaller group meetings to address the process and content of specific projects.

Fall, Winter, Spring terms; 2 credits each term (HP, P, LP, NC)
Prerequisites: None

PH 112:

Medical Care and the Corporation

(3 Credits)

This course is intended to 1) illustrate the applicability of management concepts and techniques to the health care and biotechnology industries; 2) enhance the ability of managers to serve as trustees of health care organizations; and 3) demonstrate how corporate managers can exercise judgment and control over expenditures for health care benefits while protecting the health of their employees. The characteristics and components of the health care system and their interactions and determinants will be analyzed. The history of corporate and governmental intervention in health care will be reviewed. The importance of understanding the medical market dynamics and the options for data-driven strategies for market reform will be stressed. Case examples will highlight the use of new analytic techniques for understanding and managing the medical markets.

This course is cross-listed with Tuck School of Business in their MBA program. It is limited to MS students in Health Care Leadership concentration.
Prerequisites: None

PH 132:

Enhancing Communication and Teamwork

(1 Credit)

Conflict is inevitable – we negotiate our differences every day, whether we are public health practitioners, clinicians, administrators or researchers. Working effectively in public health and health care depends on our ability to manage conflict effectively, learn how to understand others’ perspectives and interests, and both give and receive feedback. If poorly managed or avoided, conflict reduces productivity, undermines trust and leads to worse outcomes. If viewed as an opportunity to explore the concerns and different perspectives that others may have, working through these differences can enable individuals and teams to come up with better solutions and work more effectively. This elective will teach you the basic principles and skills of how to engage effectively with differences and conflicts, understand the strengths and weaknesses of how you tend to approach conflict in your life, and provide you a framework for thinking about both communication and negotiation. You will have the opportunity to practice negotiating a job offer. We will have a very active learning environment with exercises and simulations done in pairs and small groups, in addition to brief didactics and discussions. You will receive individual coaching and regular feedback.

Prerequisites: None

PH 117:

Continual Improvement of Healthcare: An Overview

(4 Credits)

This course offers participants the opportunity to discover and preview the knowledge, methods, and skills necessary to effect the continual improvement of the quality and value of health care. Participants will be offered an opportunity to connect that knowledge, and those methods and skills, to their personal life and work. This course includes a significant amount of weekly pre-class preparation. Small group work is encouraged during the afternoon lab period.

Core Requirement for MPH and MS
Prerequisites: None

PH 125:

Qualitative Methods Toolbox (SHORT COURSE)

(2 Credits)

This short course is aimed at helping students develop basic skills with commonly used non-numeric data. We will cover approaches to sound collection of data, and move through an actual data analysis process, finishing with written and visual communication of findings. The basic principles of qualitative research design and analysis using grounded theory will be covered. In addition, students will gain experience with interviewing and focus group facilitation, basic data analysis (by hand and with qualitative analysis software), and other relevant qualitative research skills.

Prerequisites: PH 100

PH 131:

Patient-Centered Health Communications

(2 Credits)

Health care decisions are complicated – really complicated – and frequently lack evidence to determine a ‘one best’ course of treatment. As such, patient‐centered health communications increasingly are recognized as a critical means to facilitate health care decisions that provide patients with “the care they need, and no less; and the care they want and no more” (Al Mulley, The Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science). The objectives of this short course are to 1) engage you to think broadly about the impact of communication at the patient, institutional, and population level; 2) to gain skills and experience related to the design and development of decision support tools and methods; 3) to understand the challenges involved in implementing decision support into practice at both at the institution and international level.

Prerequisites: None

PH 126:

Statistical Measurement and Analysis for Quality Improvement

(4 Credits)

This course explores the history and theory of statistical process control and its application to health care. Specific topics covered include: development of measures; data collection; graphical display of data; the theory and construction of control charts for means, proportions, counts and rare events; statistical testing with control charts; analysis of means. Benchmarking and an organizational approach to measurement and improvement are discussed. Different study designs for improvement work are explored. The course emphasizes application of theories and principles through the use of case studies, small group exercises and interactive discussions with guest presenters. Lab exercises, a group project and a take-home final exam are required elements of the course.

Prerequisites: PH 117 (and PH 139 and 140 preferred)

PH 151:

Environmental Health Science and Policy (SHORT COURSE)

(2 Credits)

This course engages students in the exploration of major environmental and occupational health issues through application of the basic tools of environmental science including epidemiologic methods, toxicology and risk assessment. Participants will examine the relationship between environmental and occupational exposures and human disease with emphasis on the interface of science and policy, the role of regulatory agencies and environmental risk communication. Topics include air and water quality, hazardous waste, radiation, heavy metals, food safety, environmental pathogens, and clinical occupational medicine. Faculty use a variety of teaching tools including lectures, audiovisual media, case studies, guest experts, and assigned readings/exercises. As a culminating project, students will author an environmental policy white paper based on a synthesis of scientific evidence.

Required for MPH
Prerequisites: PH 139 (or equivalent introductory epidemiology/biostatistics course) and PH 100 or approval of the instructor.

PH 178:

MPH and MS Capstone Course Series 2

(2 Credits)

The overarching goal of these courses, a series of three capstone seminars taught during the academic year, is to guide and support students throughout the completion of an academically robust, high quality culminating Capstone Project.  Each week the class will meet briefly as a single group, followed by smaller group meetings to address the process and content of specific projects.

Fall, Winter, Spring terms; 2 credits each term (HP, P, LP, NC)
Prerequisites: None

PH 115:

Strategic & Financial Management of Health Care Institutions

(4 Credits)

Strategic and Financial Management of Health Care Institutions offers students the opportunity to learn about and practice strategic and financial management as those disciplines apply to health care institutions. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand financial accounting, cost accounting, financial analysis, financial strategy, organizational structure, strategic planning, environmental analysis, and marketing. Students will be able to apply financial techniques to strategic analysis of the health care environment, cost reduction in health care and to organizational decision making. The ability to apply that knowledge will be reinforced through projects, casework and homework problems. The course integrates textbooks, cases, and projects. The first half of the course focuses on financial analysis; the second half of the course focuses on strategy.

Required for MPH
Prerequisites: No economics preparation assumed

PH 122:

Survey Research Methods and Principles

(4 Credits)

This course introduces the basic skills needed to conduct and present survey research. It will focus on two aspects of such research: designing and administering a survey (primary data collection); and accessing, analyzing and reporting on data from publicly available national survey data (secondary data analysis). Topics covered will include survey design, sampling, validity, reliability, data collection, analysis, interpretation and reporting of results. To reinforce practical skills, the course will include weekly computer labs, research in progress sessions to critique draft survey instruments, and a journal club to critically read articles reporting survey results.

Prerequisites: PH 139, 140 (and PH 100 preferred)

PH 141:

Regression and Other Approaches

(6 Credits)

The epidemiological portion examines methods used to evaluate the role of chance, bias, and confounding in epidemiological studies. Topics include sources and definitions of bias and confounding, analytic techniques, e.g., stratified analyses, Mantel-Hanszel techniques, uses of logistic regression analysis in cohort and case control studies, and introduction to life table analysis using both Kaplan-Meir and regression techniques. Other topics include planning data management and analysis in epidemiological studies and estimating sample size. Lectures are illustrated by reference to epidemiological data. The biostatistical portion of the course continues the examination of topics raised in the Late Summer and Fall terms (See PH 139 and 140).

Prerequisites: PH 139, PH 140

PH 161:

MPH Internship

(4 Credits)

The public health field internship provides students with an opportunity to apply principles and skills learned in the classroom - the measurement, organization, and improvement of public health care - to real situations in the field. A minimum of 120 hours is to be spent at the placement site during the winter and spring terms. Typically, this internship occurs in the final term of the year, but other arrangements are possible, typically for part-time students, with permission of the course director. Students who have completed their internships prepare and present an overview of their experience at the conclusion of the spring term and complete an exit appraisal of their experience and achievements.

Required for MPH; Not available for MS, PhD, Post-doc or Special students.
Prerequisites: PH 100, 102, 111, 115, 117, 139, 140, 151, and 154 or consent of course directors.

PH 124:

Design & Improvement of Clinical Microsystems

(6 Credits)

This course creates an opportunity for students to study and apply the principles and concepts learned in PH 117, Continual Improvement of Health Care, to the work of managing the health and value of health care for a defined population of patients. Participants will work in partnership with selected managed care settings throughout the United States. Specifically, this course will offer participants an opportunity to identify the processes involved in managing a panel of patients, learn the knowledge and skills providers need to manage panels and provide optimal patient care, identify approaches for taking costs out of the care while maintaining or improving quality and enhancing customer satisfaction, understand the difference between the efforts for improvement of care at the front line and in the front office and how they may be related, and identify some of the barriers to making the health of a population better.

Prerequisites: PH 117, PH 126    

PH 179:

MPH and MS Capstone Course Series 3

(2 Credits)

The overarching goal of these courses, a series of three capstone seminars taught during the academic year, is to guide and support students throughout the completion of an academically robust, high quality culminating Capstone Project.  Each week the class will meet briefly as a single group, followed by smaller group meetings to address the process and content of specific projects.

Fall, Winter, Spring terms; 2 credits each term (HP, P, LP, NC)
Prerequisites: None

PH 113:

Health Policy (SHORT COURSE)

(2 Credits)

This five-week two-credit short course is intended to further students understanding of health policy and financing in the United States through study of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Specific areas of study will include accountable care organizations, health information technology, employer and individual insurance mandates, comparative effectiveness research, and insurance expansions. Learning takes place through readings of selected manuscripts, lecture and discussion, and assignments.

Prerequisites: None

PH 147:

Advanced Methods in Health Services Research

(6 Credits)

This course will develop student analytic competencies to the level necessary to conceptualize, plan, carry out, and effectively communicate small research projects in patient care, epidemiology, or health services. Lectures, demonstrations, and labs will be used to integrate and extend methods introduced in other TDI courses. The course will also cover new methods in epidemiology, health services and data science. The students will use national publicly available data and synthetic research datasets resembling Medicare claims and electronic health record data in classroom lab exercises and course assignments. Course topics focus on key aspects observational research including cohort derivation, multilevel analyses, small area analysis, and network analysis. Practical skill areas will include programming in STATA and/or R, developing an analytic workflow, data visualization (designing tables and figures), and data structure and management. Emphasis is on becoming independent in research processes. The instructors will mentor students as they develop their own analytic projects.