The 11-credit Public Health Certificate program offers an introduction to basic concepts and methods in public health. The program can be completed over a summer and a fall semester.
Students can tailor the Certificate program to fit their interests. Four courses are required to reach 11 credits. All students take Foundations of Public Health (2 credits) and Fundamentals of Epidemiology (3 credits) and then, with permission of the Program Director, choose two additional classes from among the following options:
- Fundamentals of Biostatistics (3.5 credits)
- Social and Behavioral Dimensions of Health (3 credits)
- Globalization and Health (3 credits)
- Health Policy and Management (3 credits)
Courses
PUB 6000: Foundations of Public Health
This course provides students with an introduction to fundamental concepts and approaches underlying public health. Topics covered include population and prevention-based perspectives on health; the social context of health and health disparities; the history of public health in the U.S.; the current U.S. public health system; the role of community in public health; effective public health interventions; ethical issues in public health; and future directions in public health. Students will work in small groups to conduct health assessments of Bronx communities.
PUB 6100: Fundamentals of Epidemiology in Public Health
Epidemiology is the study of patterns of disease and injury in human populations and the application of this study to the control of health problems. We will learn to apply this methodology to the identification, understanding, and mitigation of public health problems. Topics include measurement, sampling, rates, standardization, and risk calculation, observational and experimental study design, inference, research ethics, and the application of epidemiologic research to public policy. Classes will include lectures based on the textbook, discussions based on original source readings, and a laboratory using public-access public health data.
PUB 6200: Fundamentals of Biostatistics
This course is an introduction to biostatistics. It aims to acquaint students with the fundamental concepts of biostatistics, applications of basic methods, and their interpretation. Topics covered includes data presentation, numerical summary measures, rates and standardization, introduction to probability, discrete and continuous probability models, sampling distributions, the central limit theorem, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing. Students will gain familiarity with the software package STATA. Lab sessions will be conducted to assist students in reviewing material covered in the lectures and homework assignments. All students are expected to have a working knowledge of basic computers and college mathematics.
(Prerequisite: PUB 6100)
PUB 6300: Social & Behavioral Dimensions of Public Health
This course exposes students to aspects of the behavioral and social sciences relevant to public health. It is designed to makes students more sophisticated analysts of health problems by increasing their understanding of how individual and social behaviors interact with health in the larger community and influence public health. Major scientific theories and models of health behavior are presented early in the course. The remainder of the course focuses on important social factors and specific behaviors, with an emphasis on the science of primary and secondary prevention.
PUB 7000: Globalization and Health
Globalization and health focuses on population health and on health issues that transcend national boundaries. This course will introduce students to the main principles and concepts in global health. It adopts a multidisciplinary approach to explore critical linkages between population health and socio-economic development on the one hand and the interplay of these factors within a global context. Special themes in global health will be examined by laying emphasis on how health outcomes differ in various geographic settings. The course will also explore possible approaches to improve the health systems at national and global levels from inter-related perspectives.
PUB 6400 Health Policy and Management
Why does healthcare account for over 17% of all spending in the United States? The primary objective of this course is to allow for an introductory understanding of the overall structure and functioning of the American healthcare system. Students will learn how the system is organized and the roles of essential stakeholders including the government, purchasers, payers, regulators, providers, patients, and the public. The rapidly changing dynamics of healthcare financing and access will be reviewed in the context of the newly enacted healthcare reform legislation. Diverse and essential aspects of the healthcare system will be discussed including its workforce, efforts to improve care quality and lower costs, and the increasing roles of population care management and information technology. Cross-national comparisons will be explored. An emphasis will be placed on the practical aspects of managing healthcare organizations and the public’s health.