Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course seeks to examine the ethical challenges inherent in public health practice, research, and policy. It covers a range of topics in ethics through cases representative of different public health dilemmas. The cases considered include treating homeless people with TB, rationing medical care in the United States, conducting HIV studies of maternal-fetal transmission in Africa, managed care policies and setting priorities, the deaf community and cochlear implants, and the societal implications of genetic information. The goal is to enable students to develop an analytical methodology that has practical application for their future work.
Current issues in Public Health Ethics: Research and Practice: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2009, Fall 2008
This course is designed to provide students with a brief introduction to the field of public health and a basic understanding of the contributions of the environmental, behavioral, and management and policy sciences to the practice of public health. Central foci of the course include the interactions of biology, behavior and environment; the community and population-based nature of public health; health disparities; the relationships among health care access, cost and quality of care; the performance of the health care delivery system; the concepts of risk and burden of disease; the importance of ecological and life course perspectives; and theory- and evidence-based public health research and practice. By the conclusion of this course, students will be able to discuss and describe seminal concepts and approaches, as well as current theories and methods underlying societal efforts to study and address key public health problems.
Public Health Core Breadth Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2009, Spring 2008
This course trains students in applied public health through discussion, lectures, guest speakers, cases, and field trips. Students integrate learning from previous courses with work experience. Cases emphasize current national/global public health issues and practice. At course completion, students will be able to: Demonstrate the capacity to identify, research, and respond to real-life public health challenges; work effectively and efficiently in problem-solving groups; professionally present the results of their effort to large groups for feedback and evaluation.
Applied Public Health: Putting Theory Into Practice: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016
Health policy and management applies concepts from economics, organizational behavior, and political science to the structure, financing, and regulation of the public health and health care delivery systems. This breadth course is designed to give MPH students a basic set of competencies in the domains central to the field.
Health Policy and Management Breadth Course: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017
This course will give an introduction to the major human and natural activities that lead to release of hazardous materials into the environment as well as the causal links between chemical, physical, and biological hazards in the environment and their impact on human health, including those related to climate change. The basic principles of toxicology, exposure assessment, risk assessment, risk perception, and environmental health policy will be presented. The overall role of environmental risks in the pattern of human disease, both nationally and internationally, will be covered.
Environmental Health Sciences Breadth Course: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016
Health and social behavior uses theory and research from the behavioral sciences to explain the causes and health effects of salutary and risky behavior.
Health and Social Behavior Breadth: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2015 10 Week Session, Summer 2014 10 Week Session, Summer 2013 10 Week Session
Health policy and management applies concepts from economics, organizational behavior, and political science to the structure, financing, and regulation of the public health and health care delivery systems. This breadth course is designed to give MPH students a basic set of competencies in the domains central to the field.
Health Policy and Management Breadth Course: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
This survey course covers the breadth of hazards from chemical, biological, and physical agents of concern to environmental health professionals. Lectures are presented by experts on particular topics that emphasize the activities involved in professional practice.
Environmental Health Sciences Breadth Course: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2015 10 Week Session, Summer 2014 10 Week Session
Health and social behavior uses theory and research from the behavioral sciences to explain the causes and health effects of salutary and risky behavior.
Health and Social Behavior Breadth: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course focuses on the primary factors that affect health and the interventions that can promote health. Students examine the determinants of health and the theory, history, types, ethics, and approaches of public health interventions. Community level interventions and multidisciplinary approaches receive special emphasis. The course stresses a rigorous critique of the outcomes of interventions and practical ways to improve them. Students take an active role in the design and conduct of the course.
Public Health Interventions: Theory, Practice, and Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Fall 2012, Fall 2009
This course will delve into theoretical, methodological, and practical considerations in conducting physical and mental health interventions in diverse communities. Course emphases are: a) conceptualization and implementation of community interventions within ecological models and principles; b) logic models of intervention process and outcomes; c) comparing and integrating prevention science and community-based participatory approaches to intervention; d) strategies and challenges in replicating and diffusing community-based interventions across diverse settings; and e) cultural competency in community intervention development.
Community-Based Research and Interventions to Promote Health: Theory and Methods: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2010, Spring 2009
Focus on ethnic and cultural diversity in health behavior as a basis for public health programs. Consideration of U.S. ethnic minority groups and cultural groups in non-Western societies. Health status and behavior examined in context of relevant social and anthropological theory (social class, acculturation, political economy). Influence of socio-cultural background on concepts of health, illness, and health-seeking behavior. Implications for planning public health programs and policies.
Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Health Status: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
This course is an advanced alcohol research seminar in which presentations are made by alcohol research scientists nationally and internationally, as well as pre-and post-doctoral fellows, and focus on special topical areas related to psychosocial research in the field each semester. Areas covered include the epidemiology of drinking patterns and alcohol-related problems, issues related to treatment of alcohol-related problems, and health services research. Guest presentations are also provided (related to topics outside psychosocial research) to provide a breadth of understanding in the field. The seminar also includes sessions focused on methodological issues in alcohol-related research and grant writing, and has a research ethics component covering a number of sessions.
Advanced Alcohol Research Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2013
Focus on ethnic and cultural diversity in health behavior as a basis for public health programs. Consideration of U.S. ethnic minority groups and cultural groups in non-Western societies. Health status and behavior examined in context of relevant social and anthropological theory (social class, acculturation, political economy). Influence of socio-cultural background on concepts of health, illness, and health-seeking behavior. Implications for planning public health programs and policies.
Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Health Status: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2013
This course will examine ethnic and cultural differences in health status and behavior among historically marginalized communities in the United States, including African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, as well as sexual minorities and groups from non-Western societies.
Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Health Status: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course provides a survey of theoretical perspectives and their application in analyzing the behavioral, social, and cultural dimensions of community health problems. An emphasis is placed on critically examining the strengths and weaknesses of particular theories for understanding and addressing complex community health problems.
Theories of Health and Social Behavior: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Examines the role of mass communication in advancing public health goals. Reviews mass media theories in general, and theories of the news media in particular. Provides an in-depth understanding of media advocacy as a strategy for using news media and paid advertising to support policy initiatives at the local, state, and federal levels. Examples are drawn from a wide range of public health issues.
Mass Communications in Public Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
This course emphasizes community organizing and community building as major approaches to creating healthy communities and fostering broader social change. It further examines the role of public health practitioners as change agents, stressing in particular the values and ethical issues that arise within the context of diverse and multicultural communities. Both advancement of theoretical knowledge and the development of skills in applying such knowledge in the areas of community organizing and community building will be stressed. This is a Service Learning Course, and students wishing to undertake a concurrent field project can earn an additional optional unit of credit.
Community Organizing and Community Building for Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2013
Public health literature and practice make frequent reference to the terms culture, cultural competence, race, racism, ethnicity, and health disparities. Understanding these terms, their complex meanings and current application in public health practice is the subject matter of this course. By the end of the course students will be able to describe the concepts of culture, race, racism, ethnicity, cultural competence, cultural humility, health disparities and their use in public health theory and practice; identify and describe the application of these concepts in local public health practice; and demonstrate an understanding of these concepts and their application in public health practice through the completion of a group project.
Culture, Public Health Practice, and Eliminating Health Disparities: From Ideas to Action in the 21st Century: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Understanding and addressing persistent racial inequities in health status is a core public health problem. Ethnic minorities are much more likely to experience much higher rates of poor birth outcomes, infant mortality, infectious and chronic diseases, hospitalization rates, and early death rates from all causes. This course examines racial and ethnic health inequities as a function of social inequality. Topics are drawn from a social determinants of health framework emphasizing the importance of the economic, social, and political features that adversely affect the health status of many underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. from a multidisciplinary approach: Public Health, sociology, anthropology, and social welfare
Research Advances in Health Disparities: Multidisciplinary Perspectives: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This is a film series offered through Community Health & Human Development. We wish to put "community" back in CHHD by uniting the four program areas: Public Health Nutrition (PHN), Maternal & Child Health (MCH), Health & Social Behavior (HSB), and the Joint Medical Program (JMP) in a semester long breadth course. Six to seven films, recommended by faculty and students, will be screened each spring semester. There will be a panel discussion. Panels will consist of a faculty "host" for a given film and one to two additional guests invited from the community or from the broader UC Berkeley community.
Exploring Community Health Through Film: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2015 10 Week Session, Summer 2014 10 Week Session
The purpose of this course is to provide students with an understanding of how the media can be used to promote healthy public policy. The primary focus of the course is on "media advocacy." Students will learn how to frame issues from a public health perspective. In learning more about how the media operate, they will be better equipped to work effectively with journalists.
Mass Communication in Public Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Basic elements and considerations in planning health programs; case material will be drawn from health settings, with emphasis on multidisciplinary planning. Assessment of problems, setting goals and objectives, designing activities, implementation and evaluation.
Program Planning, Development, and Evaluation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2012
The purpose of this course is to provide students with the necessary skills to plan health programs. We will examine the principles and methods underlying program planning. Multi-disciplinary, collaborative planning will be emphasized. Program planning applications will be emphasized throughout the course by using case studies, specific illustrations, and online planning exercises.
Program Planning, Development, and Evaluation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
This course will introduce first-year public health nutrition and other MPH students to critical issues in public health nutrition, and provide them with critical thinking skills to analyze these issues using scientific literature. Students will build group facilitation skills, library research skills, and professional advocacy skills. Second-year public health nutrition students and a panel of PHN graduates will speak to the students about valuable skills and competencies needed for work in public health nutrition.
PH Nutrition Core Course: Critical Issues in Public Health Nutrition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2013
Concepts, methods, and limitations in the determination of nutritional status; application of methodologies for determining and interpreting data; technical, social, and political implications of nutritional assessments and related community needs.
Nutrition Status, Physical Activity, and Chronic Conditions: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2013
This course examines the historical origins of food and nutrition improvement programs in the United States, including the political and administrative conditions that led to the development of these programs. It also examines the goals, design, operations, and effectiveness of some of these programs: Food Stamp Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, Head Start, the Child Care Food Program, and the Elderly Nutrition Program.
Food and Nutrition Policies and Programs: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2015
This course develops the ability to read published nutritional epidemiology research critically. Basic research methods in nutritional epidemiology will be reviewed, and issues in design, analysis, and interpretation unique to nutritional epidemiology will be addressed. This will be accomplished by readings and study questions, lecture/discussions, and problem sets.
Nutritional Epidemiology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
This course will use a case-based approach to examine the ways in which governments in developing countries design and implement policies and programs that affect food production and access to safe, affordable, and nutritionally adequate diets. In the course we will analyze, assess and evaluate ways to take action to ameliorate the major nutritional problems facing vulnerable populations in developing countries.
Food and Nutrition Programs and Policies in Developing Countries: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Nutrition plays a vital role in human reproduction, child growth/development. Course provides an overview of the major nutritional issues for infants, children, adolescents, and reproductive age women in the United States. One module on malnutrition offers global content. Reviews programs, interventions aimed at improving MCH nutrition, builds student familiarity with evidence-based MCH nutrition practice guidelines. Demonstrates a methodology for applying this knowledge to food choices at a personal, programmatic level. Students will be asked to engage in a "hands on" experience with the USA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly The Food Stamp Program). Supplemental learning activities for this course are highly interactive
Maternal and Child Health Nutrition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2016
Nutrition plays a vital role in human reproduction and child growth and development. This course provides an overview of the major nutritional issues faced by women of childbearing age, infants, children, and adolescents in the United States and around the world, with selected topics explored in greater depth. Nutritional problems are multi-factorial and occur at multiple levels and we will study them from a variety of viewpoints (biological, pyschological, socio-cultural, economic, political, and behavioral) as well as from individual and population perspectives. Participants in the course will become acquainted with nutritional research, policies, and interventions designed to enhance reproduction, growth, and development. This course will also explore health disparities in maternal and child nutrition in both a domestic and international context.
Public Health Aspects of Maternal and Child Nutrition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2006 10 Week Session, Summer 2005 10 Week Session, Summer 2004 10 Week Session
The nutritional care of people with major diseases is reviewed, observed, and practiced in various Bay Area hospitals. Current nutritional therapies of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, renal diseases, liver diseases, gastro-intestinal disorders, and trauma are reviewed. The organization and delivery of nutritional care services in hospital settings.
Public Health Aspects of Nutritional Care: In Hospital Setting: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2007 10 Week Session, Summer 2006 10 Week Session, Summer 2005 10 Week Session
The organization and delivery of nutrition care services facilities such as health departments, ambulatory health care settings, child care and education facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and senior nutrition programs. Included are nutrition education and counseling, food service, nutrition assessments, consultation, and training.
Public Health Aspects of Nutritional Care: In Selected Facilities: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course will explore issues related to maternal, child, and adolescent health throughout the life course with a focus on the social determinants of health, health disparities, and social justice. Discussion will focus on current issues central to maternal and child health policy and practice; the history and organization of MCH health services in the US; and analyze the ways in which the political context in the US and internationally affects the health and well-being of families, including critical examination of the ways in which knowledge about an issue, an understanding of the social strategies to address that issue, and political will are all leveraged to influence the creation of MCH policy.
Foundations of Maternal and Child Health Policy, Practice and Science: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course is designed to provide an understanding of the epidemiology and etiology of critical health issues among adolescents, including complex contextual influences and individual processes related to this dynamic period of life. Each adolescent health outcome will be considered in light of developmental issues related to the pubertal transition and multilevel influences that contribute to adolescent health and well-being, including 1) biological, 2) cognitive, 3) behavioral, and 4) social-culture factors. The course will emphasize: empirical evidence for the etiology of adolescent health problems, documented risk and protective factors, and content and timing of preventive intervention efforts to ameliorate risk.
Adolescent Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2013
The purpose of this course is to provide a conceptual and practical understanding of health needs and the strategies that can be used for conducting needs assessments in maternal and child health. The course is aimed at students who anticipate working in situations that involve measuring health problems in communities, planning for health services, and advocating or making decisions about the distribution of community health resources.
Needs Assessment in Maternal and Child Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Research methods and issues in perinatal and reproductive epidemiology with emphasis on methods of study. Specific adverse reproductive outcomes, risk factors, and prevalence will be discussed. Will include critiques of published studies and techniques of proposal writing.
Reproductive and Perinatal Epidemiology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course is designed to support MCH students complete their masters capstone project. Part I is offered in the Fall and Part II is in Spring.
Practicum in MCH Data Analysis I: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016
The course is designed to support MCH students working on their Master's Capstone project. The course goal is to support students in a variety of methodological issues and practical issues. The course is a combination of formal class meetings and one-on-one meetings.
Practicum In MCH Data Analysis II: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Assessment of health status of mothers, infants, and children on worldwide basis; special emphasis on problems, policies, and programs affecting MCH and family planning in developing countries.
International Maternal and Child Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Building upon expertise on migration from Mexico to the U.S., the goal of this course is to strengthen students' knowledge and understanding of public health issues of immigrants and the effects that migration has on the health/disease issues of communities in the countries of origin, transit, and destination. Students will explore successful public health intervention programs targeting these populations.
Migration and Health: A U.S.-Mexico Binational Perspective: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
This is one of the two sequential graduate level core courses of the Global Health specialty area, designed to deepen students’ understanding of the complexities of global health issues. It will build on the principles discussed in the fall semester in Foundations of Global Health (PH C253/DEVP C232). The course will discuss current interventions and possible approaches for the future, complex ethical and political issues, and will prepare students to become part of the future global health work force and leadership. The course will be taught using a mix of teaching styles including case-based learning, trans-disciplinary approaches, and guest lecturers. It will integrate new technology and web-based class reflections.
Expanded Foundations of Global Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
This course will serve students intending to conduct research, policy work, or program implementation in health services in developing countries. Topics covered will include definition and typology of private sector in various countries, theories of private sector regulation, motivation, and research. Methodological and practical issues in measuring provider importance, quality, and in influencing the activities of actors in private health delivery will be explored from viewpoints of both research and programmatic intervention.
Private Sector Health Services in Developing Countries: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Course examines the determinants of family size and the role played by contraception, voluntary sterilization, and induced abortion in the transition to small families. It looks at the factors controlling access to fertility regulation in developed and developing countries and discusses the factors that have made for successful family programs as well as those that have generated controversy. The course looks at the relationship between family planning and the health of women and children and at the role of family size in economic development and environmental problems. It looks at advances in family planning, organization, and promotion of services and discusses ethical issues facing providers.
Family Planning, Population Change, and Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course is a team-oriented, project-based course designed around the case-based and learning-by-doing models. The critical elements of the human-centered design process – discovering, ideating, and prototyping – are learned through didactic sessions and an 8-week project students work on in teams. Working with community partners on a public health issue related to food, the student teams apply human-centered design skills to the problem, and design and pilot (when possible) a solution with and for their community partner.
Eat.Think.Design: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
This is an interdisciplinary course which will adopt a broad-based ecological perspective of health and behavior. This class will emphasize the interconnected and multidirectional relationships between biology, behavior, and the social environment. This course will be conducted as a seminar series (with a focus on biological processes). We will investigate the assertion that biological, psychological, and social processes interact over a lifetime to influence health and vulnerability to disease (a developmental epigenetic perspective). Rather than focusing on "if" social factors can influence health and disease we will focus on "how" social factors may regulate/change biological measures. Three very general themes will be addressed: development, "social" neuroscience and gene-environment interactions as they relate to behavior. Topics such as constraints/plasticity and behavior, genetic determinism, vulnerability versus resilience, gene-environment interactions, fetal/developmental programming, and stress will all be touched upon.
Biological Embedding of Social Factors: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of research, practice, and policy in the area of aging and public health. Topics will include the epidemiology of aging; race, class, gender, and aging; nutrition and the elderly; and current health policy surrounding aging. Themes running throughout the course and linking a number of the topics covered will include the diversity of the elderly; the importance of co-morbidity and functional health status in this population group; the family and broader environmental contexts in which aging takes place; and the influence of public and private sector policies on health and health-related behavior in the elderly. Weekly lectures by the faculty will be complemented by presentations by prominent Bay Area researchers in the areas of geriatrics and gerontology. This is the core course for the School of Public Health specialty in aging and public health.
Aging and Public Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
This course will survey the field of Alzheimer's disease (AD) from a biological and public health perspective by reading original research papers in the fields of medicine, neuroscience, and epidemiology. The course will begin with a historical survey of the concept of AD, followed by a description of clinical and neuropathological features. Subsequent classes will cover the genetics and molecular biology of the disease, as well as biomarkers, epidemiology, risk factors, treatment, development of new diagnostic approaches, and ethical issues. The course will also serve as a model for the analysis of complex diseases with multiple genetic and environmental causes, and late onset neurodegenerative diseases. The course will also serve as a model for the analysis of complex diseases with multiple genetic and environmental causes and late-onset neurodegenerative disease.
Biological and Public Health Aspects of Alzheimer's Disease: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
The study of concepts, methods, rationale, and uses of evaluation research as they apply to health and social programs.
Evaluation of Health and Social Programs: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015
This course provides an overview of the concepts and methods of program evaluation. The course will be useful to those concerned with evaluation of health and social service programs. Participants will develop the critical skills necessary to assess the quality of evaluation research projects, to apply technical skills in professional practice, and to develop evaluation plans for a variety of heath and social programs.
Evaluation of Health and Social Programs: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2009, Spring 2008
An overview of the theoretical and methodological components involved in various aspects of qualitative research.
Advanced Methods: Qualitative Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2014
The goal of this seminar is to provide doctoral and advanced master's degree students with an understanding of theories, principles, and strategies of community-based participatory research (CBPR) and related traditions. The advantages and limitations of this approach, skills necessary for effective application, and theory-driven case studies will be explored. Students undertaking a service-learning project applying CBPR may receive a 4th unit.
Community-Based Participatory Research in Public Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2013, Fall 2012
This course provides students with a thorough tool kit for designing survey questionnaires and for implementing telephone, face-to-face, and mail surveys. The three-hour weekly class sessions are designed to convey practical knowledge, with a case study approach used to complement each topical lecture. An SPSS laboratory is also given each semester. The course is an elective for Health and Social Behavior students, and many from the multidisciplinary program and other tracks in the school (including UCSF, e.g., nurses in their Ph.D. programs) have often enrolled as well. By the end of the semester, students will have designed, as their class project, a research project including a study design rationale, aims and hypotheses, data collection methods and measures, human subjects consent form, codebook and analysis plan.
Social and Behavioral Health Research: Introduction to Survey Methods: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course is designed to familiarize students who have little or no experience in conducting qualitative research with the perspectives, methods, and techniques of a vast and contentious tradition of research. The course will cover some of the methods of data collections used in the conduct of qualitative inquiries, the analysis of textural data, the write-up of findings from qualitative studies, and the development of a qualitative research proposal. While learning about qualitative methods, students will gain an understanding of the qualitative research literature on a topic of their choice, as well as how to integrate findings from a variety of qualitative studies on a research question of topic.
Introduction to Qualitative Methods in Public Health Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015
This course provides students with a thorough tool kit for designing survey questionnaires and for implementing telephone, face-to-face, mail, and internet surveys. The two three-hour, weekly class sessions are designed to convey practical knowledge with a case study approach used to complement the topical lectures. An SPSS laboratory also is given each semester.
Social and Behavioral Health Research: Introduction to Survey Methods: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Introduction to federal-level health policy and analysis of government capacity in addressing major issues in health policy. The course explores structural impediments to reform in the US, regulatory decision-making -- particularly decision-making under conditions of uncertainty, and basic tools of policy analysis. Students will apply these tools in a seminar paper that analyzes a proposed or existing health policy or program.
Health Policy Decision-Making: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Fall 2013
This course introduces the basic scientific principles of environmental health risk assessment, develops the understanding necessary to carry out and interpret quantitative risk assessments, and describes the context in which decisions manage environmental health risks are made. The course presents the quantitative methods used to assess the human health risks associated with exposure to microbial and chemical agents, focusing on the four major components of risk assessment: hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment and risk characterization. The course examines the application of environmental health risk assessment to contemporary issues including the associated complexities, challenges and controversies.
Health Risk Assessment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
A graduate seminar in practice-based means to advocate for health policy. This course focuses on data based strategies using persuasive written and oral communication skills necessary to preserve and/or improve the health status of populations. Students will develop research, organization, and coalition-building skills necessary to produce an effective advocacy campaign. The course identifies the roles of those involved in the making of policy and demonstrates the use of appropriate channels and technologies to influence health policy change.
Health Policy Advocacy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2011, Fall 2010
This course will provide an intensive introduction to current topics in international health policy. Students in the course will become familiar with the major actors, institutions, and regimes that shape international health policy. The course will also introduce students to theories of governance as they apply to international settings and evaluate the relative roles of state actors, NGOs, and international regimes in producing key health policy outcomes. The course will cover several current issues in international health and will require students to critically assess the state of policy with respect to these issues. Using Bardach's method for policy analysis, students will analyze current policies and propose policy alternatives with an assessment of the tradeoffs implied in choosing a given policy option over its competitors.
Global Health Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2009
This course focuses on three interrelated issues: How do we determine when we have too many or too few health care workers to provide high quality and cost effective care? What are the factors that determine the supply and distribution of health care workers? What are the methods that can be used to increase the performance and productivity of health care workers? We will review recent evidence on the supply, quality, and cost of the health workforce in California, the U.S., and globally. Approaches to the public and private financing of medical education will also be analyzed. This course is taught in a seminar format with lectures, visiting speakers, and student presentations.
Health Workforce and Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2010
This course trains students in the mechanisms of effective policy change. Students are placed in ongoing, real world advocacy campaigns, and students receive mentoring from university instructors as well as field preceptors. The class teaches advocacy tools that students can leverage in their future careers, whether for governmental redress or improving systems within organizations. The lens employed in the class is the improvement of public health through advocacy.
Advocacy in Action: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2013
This course provides a foundation for understanding mental illness and mental health services and the evolution and current state of our thinking about them. It presents the most frequent varieties of mental illness and addresses their frequency of occurrence, and it addresses the social disability from mental illness and the societal response to mental illness. It also considers treatments, services, effectiveness, quality of care, and financing, as well as considering financing, legal issues, and special concerns and services for children and youth. In addition, the course provides a forum to critically examine the knowledge base on mental illness, epidemiology, policies, programs, and services as it presents major controversies and highlights the best available evidence.
Mental Health Policies, Programs, and Services: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2013, Fall 2012
In this class, we will construct a framework to formulate explanations for health care disparities and to construct responses that have the potential for a policy-oriented, and therefore widespread, response. Taking advantage of selected developments in social science theory and research that can provide insight into how health care disparities come about, we will draw from anthropological and psychological theories of cultural orientation, cultural framing of problems, and cultural identity; as well as drawing from psychological theories of stress and coping. We also will draw from sociological theories of individual and community poverty, and theories characterizing health care system design and service delivery.
Understanding and Overcoming Health Care Disparities: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
The course examines the public policy institutions and processes influencing innovation, regulation, and payment for biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. Topics include technology transfer and patent law, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review for safety and efficacy, insurance coverage policy at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), coverage, payment, and benefit by private insurers for new technology, and cost-effectiveness analysis. Special topics vary from year to year. Examples and case studies are drawn from all three of the technology sectors.
Health Care Technology Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Fall 2013, Fall 2012
An intensive introduction that will provide students with an understanding of the structure, financing, and special properties of health services delivery. The course will analyze the larger management and policy issues that drive reform efforts.
Introduction to the Health Care System: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2009, Fall 2008, Fall 2007
This is an advanced course in health management. It is intended for master's degree students in the Division of Health Policy and Management who have already completed their field residency. The course consists of analyses and discussions of cases highlighting complex managerial issues in health care delivery, E-health, biotechnology, and other health-related organizations. The cases used in the class will provide the student with real-world management problems, choices, and information. The key task for the student is to develop solutions to problems and propose actions using the information in the case. The case discussions will draw on the student's knowledge of health organizations and current health policies and the skills the student has acquired in operational management, strategic management, ethical analysis, health politics and policy analysis, and interpersonal communication.
Cases in Health Management: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
The overall purpose of this course is to assist the student in managing health care organizations from a strategic perspective. This is accomplished by systematically addressing systemwide, organization-wide, group- and individual-level issues in strategy formulation, content, implementation, and performance. Emphasis is placed upon the manager's role in simultaneously taking into account a wide variety of internal and external factors to improve organization and system performance in meeting the health needs of individuals and communities. Emphasis is also placed on the development and implementation of strategies to meet multiple stakeholder demands, particular attention given to continuous quality improvement/total quality management.
Strategic Management and the Health Sector: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course is designed as a first semester seminar for master's students in the Division of Health Policy and Management. The purposes of this course are fourfold: 1) to provide an overview of the U.S. medical and health care systems; 2) to provide an introduction to basic concepts and competencies in health policy analysis and health management; 3) to provide internship preparation and career development activities; and 4) to provide opportunities to develop relationships with 1st- and 2nd-year HPM students and with faculty, alumni, and healthcare leaders.
Foundations of Health Policy and Management: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course is an integrative seminar that builds on the core curriculum requirements of the school and HPM specialty. Participants are master's degree students advancing to candidacy. After sharing their internship experiences and the impact on career decisions, the students are required to draw on situations from their internship to demonstrate what they have learned by leading fellow seminar participants in facilitated discussions, culminating in a specific management recommendation or policy position. Students will gain exposure to a range of HPM issues based on the experiences of their peers. Each student is also required to produce a 20-page paper and prepare and deliver a formal presentation to seminar participants and invited faculty. The paper will address an HPM topic of interest that has been selected by the student and approved by the course faculty and the student's academic advisor. Suggested formats for the paper are a policy or strategic management analysis, but other options may be proposed and approved by the instructor.
Capstone Seminar in Health Policy and Management: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
The ability to secure enduring agreements is an essential skill for a successful public health leader. This course integrates lecture and experiential components to expose students to major theories and specific tactics that underlie effective negotiating. It offers the opportunity to develop the skills needed to build awareness of personal styles. Students will be evaluated on their understanding of relevant theory and their ability to apply it in individual and team-based negotiations.
Effective Public Health Negotiations: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014
The overall purpose of this course is to assist the student in managing healthcare organizations from a strategic perspective. This is accomplished by systemically addressing systemwide, organization-wide, group- and individual-level issues in strategy formulation, content, implementation, and performance. The course will cover a wide variety of health care organizations including physican group practices, health systems, hospitals, HMOs, suppliers, pharmacoutical and biotech companies.
Strategic Management and the Health Sector: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2014
Introduction to health administration, focusing on theories of management, organizations, and environments as they relate to the administration of health services. Cases, simulation, and structured experiences will be used to tie theory to practice.
Health Care Organizations and Management: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
This course examines major theories and frameworks for analyzing health care organizations. Emphasis is given to the application and testing of theories in the health care sector. Theories to be examined include bureaucracy, contingency theory, culture and climate, resource dependence, institutional theory, and theories of change and innovation. The seminar will rely on extensive student participation.
Advanced Health Care Organizations and Environments: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017
The course focuses on the quality of Health Care in the United States, including variations and determinants in quality and best practices in improving quality. Students will develop an understanding of conceptual frameworks for Health Care problem solving and quality improvement. As part of the class they will gain experience in designing a Health Care quality improvement plan. The course is designed for Graduate students interested in healthcare delivery.
Health Care Quality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2013
Today, the health care system consists of a mixture of organizational forms that plan, regulate, and deliver medical care and other health services. The objective of this course is to consider 1) the structure of these organizations and the factors that affect their performance, as well as their growth and decline and 2) the role that health care managers play in the organizations in which they work.
Health Care Organizations and Management: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2013, Spring 2012
This is a course for nonlawyers in legal issues in the organization and delivery of health care, including regulation, fraud and abuse, physician arrangements, Medicare, managed care, privacy, malpractice, patient dumping, health care organizations, contracts, etc. Students will gain an appreciation of the interaction of law, policy, and health care delivery. Case studies, including an extended contract negotiation and medical-legal cases, will focus on the application and communication of legal principles in complex but common health care decision-making situations.
Legal Basis for Health Care Delivery: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2014
This course introduces students to the economics of health and health care. In addition to familarizing students with the language and tools of health economics, the course will provide an overview of key institutional features of the health economy as well as important research findings in the field. These will be used to evaluate the economic logic and incentives in competing proposals for health care reform.
Health Economics A: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
An economic and policy analysis of the health care system. It examines integration of the health care delivery system and the impact of competition and regulation on providers and patients. Alternative models of health care system reform are presented and analyzed.
Health Economics B: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2013
An introduction to the literature that suggests that the performance of a regional economy affects the health of the population it supports. Controversies in the theoretical and empirical literature are discussed. The implications of the work for public health practice are discussed.
Economics of Population Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
This class is a survey of different health care systems in western and eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, and China. Other countries will be added to meet the interests of students. The course examines the structure and financing of the health system in each country and assesses the effectiveness, efficacy, and equity of each systems. Students will make a presentation on a country's health system and write a paper.
Global Health Economics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Not yet offered
This 3-unit online course will explore the economics evidence base and tools for evaluating economic factors and interventions that shape the health of populations. The course will include a substantial economic evaluation module to teach cost-effectiveness analysis tools.
Economics of Population Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
This course covers finance and strategic financial management in the health services and products industry, including provider organizations, insurance firms, and biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. Cases are used to apply the financial analysis and planning skills learned in the course. Topic areas include financial statement analysis, pricing and service decisions, debt financing, venture capital, and private equity, IPO and public equity markets, risk and return, capital budgeting and project risk assessment, mergers and acquisitions, vertical and horizontal integration.
Health Care Finance: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
This is an introductory course for nonlawyers in selected aspects of the law relating to public health. Major attention is paid to fundamental legal principles and legal reasoning, recurring legal issues confronted by health professionals, and the use of law to advance a public health agenda. Emphasis is placed on giving students tools to use when they encounter law-related problems in their professional careers. The course is intended for students in all divisions of the School of Public Health.
Public Health and the Law: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2010, Spring 2008
Critical analysis of selected issues in health policy. Topics include political ideology and health policy, interest group politics in health, Marxist and materialist interpretation of health policy, and the politics of health care technology, implementation, bureaucracy, and health professions.
Advanced Health Politics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course provides an overview of analytic methods that Master's students in health policy and management should be familiar with. Topics include linear regression, limited dependent variable models such as logit, design, and analysis of complex surveys (with weighted and clustered sampling), and quasi-experimental causal analysis. The course complements 245, with an emphasis on enabling nonstatisticians to interpret and critique applications in the HPM literature.
Analytic Methods for Health Policy and Management: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015
This course will introduce students to basic operations research/management (OR/OM) methods and discuss how they can be applied in health care delivery settings. The class uses a problem-based, participatory approach to learning. Data management and analysis are conducted using Excel and STATA. Topics include process reengineering and job redesign, productivity and performance management, linear programming and operational decision-making, staffing and job scheduling, patient flow analysis, queuing theory and applications, forecasting, and supply chain management.
Health Care Operations and Management Methods: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2012, Spring 2011, Spring 2010
An introduction to time-domain analyses of potential interest to public health researchers and practitioners. Applications in forecasting and hypothesis testing will be demonstrated.
Doctoral Seminar in Public Health Applications of Time Series Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2016
Exploration of common origins of urban planning and public health, from why and how the fields separated and strategies to reconnect them, to addressing urban health inequities in the 21st century. Inquiry to influences of urban population health, analysis of determinants, and roles that city planning and public health agencies - at local and international level - have in research, and action aimed at improving urban health. Measures, analysis, and design of policy strategies are explored.
Healthy Cities: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
Meeting the challenge of global sustainability will require interdisciplinary approaches to research and education, as well as the integration of this new knowledge into society, policymaking, and business. Green Chemistry is an intellectual framework created to meet these challenges and guide technological development. It encourages the design and production of safer and more sustainable chemicals and products.
Green Chemistry: An Interdisciplonary Approach to Sustainability: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
This course will review the methods for the design and analysis of impact evaluations relevant to health professionals, especially those working in low and middle-income countries. The class will emphasize the challenges involved in identifying the causal relationship between a program or project and its outcomes while providing students with some experience in drafting a proposal that might be submitted to a funding agency for support of an impact evaluation. For doctoral students the course may help concretely to identify potential dissertation projects; for masters students the course will provide skills
useful in obtaining a future job in the field.
Impact Evaluation for Health Professionals: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
The process and principles of drug development will be discussed in the context of the FDA's mandate and reach (basic science, pre-clinical and clinical research, policy, law, and public health), emphasizing the impact of public health emergencies such as HIV on evolution of regulatory policies.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Drug Development, and Public Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Not yet offered
The first half of the course focuses on the application of organization theories to health sector organizations. The second half of the course focuses on the application of public administration and political science theories to health sector organizations. Students will also be exposed to basic research designs, logic models and hypothesis development. Emphasis is placed on critique of existing theories and the associated empirical literature. This PhD seminar course is primarily intended for first year PhD students in the Berkeley PhD Program in Health Policy administered by the School of Public Health on behalf of the Graduate School. The course is also open with the consent of the instructors to students in other PhD programs,
Theories and Methods in Health Policy and Health Services Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Not yet offered
The first half of the course focuses on major economics theories and frameworks relevant to the study of health policy and health services research. The second half of the course focuses on the application of behavioral and social science theories and methods to population health research. Students will also be exposed to basic research designs, logic models, and hypothesis development. Emphasis is placed on critique of existing theories and the associated empirical literature. This PhD seminar course is primarily intended for first year PhD students in the Berkeley PhD program in Health Policy administered by the School of Public Health on behalf of the Graduate School.
Theories and Methods in Health Policy and Health Services Research B: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Course covers major topics in general statistical theory, with a focus on statistical methods in epidemiology. The course provides a broad theoretical framework for understanding the properties of commonly-used and more advanced methods. Emphasis is on estimation in nonparametric models in the context of contingency tables, regression (e.g., linear, logistic), density estimation and more. Topics include maximum likelihood and loss-based estimation, asymptotic linearity/normality, the delta method, bootstrapping, machine learning, targeted maximum likelihood estimation. Comprehension of broad concepts is the main goal, but practical implementation in R is also emphasized. Basic knowledge of probability/statistics and calculus are assume
Introduction to Modern Biostatistical Theory and Practice: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2015, Fall 2013, Spring 2012
Analysis of survival time data using parametric and non-parametric models, hypothesis testing, and methods for analyzing censored (partially observed) data with covariates. Topics include marginal estimation of a survival function, estimation of a generalized multivariate linear regression model (allowing missing covariates and/or outcomes), estimation of a multiplicative intensity model (such as Cox proportional hazards model) and estimation of causal parameters assuming marginal structural models. General theory for developing locally efficient estimators of the parameters of interest in censored data models. Computing techniques, numerical methods, simulation and general implementation of biostatistical analysis techniques with emphasis on data applications.
Biostatistical Methods: Survival Analysis and Causality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2012
This course provides an introduction to computational statistics, with emphasis on statistical methods and software for addressing high-dimensional inference problems in biology and medicine. Topics include numerical and graphical data summaries, loss-based estimation (regression, classification, density estimation), smoothing, EM algorithm, Markov chain Monte-Carlo, clustering, multiple testing, resampling, hidden Markov models, in silico experiments.
Biostatistical Methods: Computational Statistics with Applications in Biology and Medicine: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2015, Fall 2013
This course and Pb Hlth C240C/Stat C245C provide an introduction to computational statistics with emphasis on statistical methods and software for addressing high-dimensional inference problems that arise in current biological and medical research. The courses also discusses statistical computing resources, with emphasis on the R language and environment (www.r-project.org). Programming topics to be discussed include: data structures, functions, statistical models, graphical procedures, designing an R package, object-oriented programming, inter-system interfaces. The statistical and computational methods are motivated by and illustrated on data structures that arise in current high-dimensional inference problems in biology and medicine.
Biostatistical Methods: Computational Statistics with Applications in Biology and Medicine II: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2013, Fall 2012, Fall 2010, Fall 2009
Genomics is one of the fundamental areas of research in the biological sciences and is rapidly becoming one of the most important application areas in statistics. This is the first course of a two-semester sequence, which provides an introduction to statistical and computational methods for the analysis of meiosis, population genetics, and genetic mapping. The second course is Statistics C245F/Public Health C240F. The courses are primarily intended for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students from the mathematical sciences.
Statistical Genomics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Genomics is one of the fundamental areas of research in the biological sciences and is rapidly becoming one of the most important application areas in statistics. The first course in this two-semester sequence is Public Health C240E/Statistics C245E. This is the second course, which focuses on sequence analysis, phylogenetics, and high-throughput microarray and sequencing gene expression experiments. The courses are primarily intended for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students from the mathematical sciences.
Statistical Genomics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Biostatistical concepts and modeling relevant to the design and analysis of multifactor population-based cohort and case-control studies, including matching. Measures of association, causal inference, confounding interaction. Introduction to binary regression, including logistic regression.
Statistical Analysis of Categorical Data: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2013, Spring 2012, Spring 2010
Survey of classical methods; mixture, clustered, grouped, incomplete, Cox-model, and truncated data simulation and analysis.
Biometrical Data Analysis--Pathological Incomplete Data and Pattern Recognition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2011, Spring 2007
Generalized histograms and Gram-Charlier expansions; series inclusion and stopping rules, multiplier and weighting techniques, nonparametric regression, variance reduction, smoothing, and equiprobability contour estimation methods and other graphical methods.
Biometrical Data Analysis--Model Free Curve Estimation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
The course covers the statistical issues surrounding estimation of effects using data on subjects followed through time. The course emphasizes a regression model approach and discusses disease incidence modeling and both continuous outcome data/linear models and longitudinal extensions to nonlinear models (e.g., logistic and Poisson). The primary focus is from the analysis side, but mathematical intuition behind the procedures will also be discussed. The statistical/mathematical material includes some survival analysis, linear models, logistic and Poisson regression, and matrix algebra for statistics. The course will conclude with an introduction to recently developed causal regression techniques (e.g., marginal structural models). Time permitting, serially correlated data on ecological units will also be discussed.
Longitudinal Data Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2011, Fall 2010
Current issues in biostatistics research. Topics will vary from term to term depending on student demand and faculty availability. Possible topics are bioassay, meta-analysis, compartmental models, biostatistical consulting, covariance structure models, bootstrap and jackknife methods, artificial intelligence techniques in biostatistics.
Special Topics in Biostatistics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
An introduction to new information systems, such as the Internet and interactive television, and how they may be used to improve human health. The course has three objectives: first, to familiarize students with new information technologies; second, to review how these technologies will be used by public health professionals, consumers, health care providers, and others; and third, to study related ethical and legal issues such as privacy, access, and liability. The course is designed for people with minimal understanding of interactive technologies.
Information Systems in Public Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2012
This course examines the theory and statistical methods for analyzing data generated by adaptive group sequential designs. It also considers the construction of targeted adaptive group sequential designs that adapt in a way that is optimal for the estimation of a particular target feature of the data generating experiment (i.e., causal effect of the treatment). Topics to be covered include: sequential testing, adaptive sample size, martingale estimating functions to construct estimators, targeted maximum likelihood estimation for adaptive designs, targeted Bayesian learning for adaptive designs, martingale theory for the analysis of estimators for adaptive designs.
Special Topics in Biostatistics: Adaptive Designs: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Not yet offered
Big Data deluge now engulfs almost every brand of science and business, requiring expertise in combination of statistics and computing. This course aims to help students develop a set of useful skills to cope with the Big Data challenges, with particular focus on Public Health applications. It covers a wide range of modern statistics and machine learning techniques, as well as state of the art computational tools, and emphasizes statistical modeling and inference (e.g., how to properly formulate a hypothesis and a model, develop intuitive insights and interpretations, and evaluate uncertainty of the outcomes) and covers important computational and algorithmic components (modern computational paradigm of Map-Reduce).
Big Data: A Public Health Perspective: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
The following topics are discussed in the context of biomedical and biological application: multiple regression, loglinear models, discriminant analysis, principal components. Instruction in statistical computing is given in the laboratory session.
Introduction to Multivariate Statistics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2013, Fall 2011, Spring 2011
This course examines optimal robust methods for statistical inference regarding causal and non-causal parameters based on longitudinal data in the presence of informative censoring and informative confounding of treatment. Models presented include multivariate regression models, multiplicative intensity models for counting processes, and causal models such as marginal structural models and structural nested models. Methods will be illustrated with data sets of practical interest and analyzed in the laboratory section. This course, appropriate for advanced masters and Ph.D. students, provides exposure to a number of ongoing research topics.
Censored Longitudinal Data and Causality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
The material presented will focus on learning the programming language R, which will be taught in the context of reviewing and introducing a number of statistical methods. Four topic areas will be presented focusing on implementation; these are descriptive methods, simulation techniques, linear models, and estimation. The goal of the course is to provide a package of statistical techniques along with new and advanced computer tools for implementation.
Statistical/Computer Analysis Using R: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Fall 2016
Principles and methods of epidemiology: study design, selection, and definition of cases and controls; sampling, data collection, analysis, and inference. Discussion session provides an opportunity to apply methods to problem sets and to discuss issues presented in lectures.
Epidemiologic Methods I: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course is intended as an intermediate level course in the field of epidemiology. Topics include causal inference; measurement of disease rates; inferential reasoning; and research study designs including ecologic, case-control, cohort, intervention trials, and meta-analytic designs (potential sources of bias, confounding, and effect modification in each research design are explored in depth); topics in clinical epidemiology including the use of likelihood ratios, receiver operator curves, and the sensitivity, specificity, predictive value of a test; and a brief introduction to logistic regression, survival analysis, and decision analysis. The readings from this course are drawn primarily from advanced epidemiology textbooks (Kleinbuam, Rothman, Miettinen). The course is intended to provide a firm foundation for students who will subsequently enroll in 250C.
Epidemiologic Methods II: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2012
This course will cover a series of advanced analytical methods for epidemiologic research, drawing heavily on concepts covered in PH 250B. The course consists of a series of modules, including modeling of epidemiological measures of effect, Bayesian methods, instrumental variable analysis, mediation analysis, missing data, and sensitivity analysis. Hands-on application is emphasized. Class time will consist of lectures, class discussion, student presentations and a weekly practicum.
Advanced Epidemiologic Methods: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2012
This introductory graduate course presents the principles and methods of epidemiology, including descriptive and analytic approaches to assessing the distributions of health, disease, and injury in the population and factors that influence those distributions. Through the combination of lecture, readings, and discussion of problem sets, students without prior coursework in epidemiology will acquire the core competencies in epidemiology expected of all MPH graduates.
Epidemiologic Methods I: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
A two-semester sequence intended for students in the Epidemiology/Biostatistics MPH program and other qualified graduate students. This is a practicum course in research design data analysis. Students select a research question and learn practical skills to analyze a large database in order to answer the research question. The course teaches use of CMS and SAS in performing univariate analyses; students also learn critically to review scientific literature. Students are required to complete computer assignments, an oral presentation of a literature review with handouts for class, a final presentation (as would be presented at a scientific meeting), and a final report in a style for a publishable manuscript.
Practicum in Epidemiologic Methods I: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course will review the theoretical aspects of causal inference, literature review, and meta-analysis, but its focus will be more on the practical aspects of these topics that are not commonly found in textbooks or presented in classes on epidemiologic theory. It is hoped that the student develops the day-to-day skills necessary to complete and present a well-documented, accurate, and thorough review of epidemiologic literature.
Causal Inference and Meta-Analysis in Epidemiology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This is an intensive, one-semester introduction to the R programming language for applied epidemiology. R is a freely available, multi-platform (Mac OS, Linux, and Windows, etc.), versatile, and powerful program for statistical computing and graphics (http://www.r-project.org). This course will focus on core basics of organizing, managing, and manipulating epidemiologic data; basic epidemiologic applications; introduction to R programming; and basic R graphics.
Applied Epidemiology Using R: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
This course consists of two distinct components: (1) advanced treatment of epidemiologic methods: matched data, spatial analysis, logistic and Poisson regression models; (2) survival analysis: Kaplan-Meier estimation, survival distributions, parametric and semi-parametric survival analysis models. Students are encouraged to concurrently enroll in 248L which carries the prerequisite of a working knowledge of the statistical computing language R.
Epidemiological Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2010, Fall 2009
This course will cover the basic principles and methods of sampling and survey design. The weekly lecture will cover the principles of sampling and include a discussion of various case studies. The computer laboratory will consist of exercises that develop skills for using computers to draw samples and to solve sampling problems. The material covered in the computer laboratory session will generally correspond to the topics covered in the preceding class meetings.
Applied Sampling and Survey Design and Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course will cover the basic tools required to both critically read modeling papers and to develop and use models as research tools. Emphasis will be placed on using models to understand infectious disease processes and to evaluate potential control strategies. The class meeting will consist of both lecture material covering conceptual issues and a computer lab to apply these concepts using standard infectious disease models.
Modeling the Dynamics of Infectious Disease Processes: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Students learn (through lectures and graded student presentations and projects) to design clinical and population-level field trials. Topics: formulation of a testable hypothesis; identification of appropriate populations; blinding (including indices for assessment); randomization (including traditional and adaptive randomization algorithms); sample-size estimation; recruitment strategies; data collection systems; quality control and human subjects responsibilities; adverse effects monitoring; improving participant adherence; use of surrogate outcomes.
Intervention Trial Design: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
This course presents a general framework for causal inference using directed acyclic graphs, non-parametric structural equation models, and counterfactuals. Marginal structural models and causal effect estimation using inverse probability of treatment weighting, G-computation, and targeted maximum likelihood are introduced. In two-part presentations, students will define and implement research questions.
Introduction to Causal Inference: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2015
The course will be conducted as a seminar with readings and discussions on a range of more advanced topics. We will cover case-control designs; longitudinal causal models, identifiability and estimation; direct and indirect effects; dynamic regimes (individualized treatment rules); approaches for diagnosing and responding to violations in the positivity assumption. Additional topics may include stochastic interventions, community-based interventions, and Collaborative-TMLE. There will also be some guest lectures and presentations from current students and faculty members.
Advanced Topics in Causal Inference: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2010, Spring 2009
Ways of doing surveillance for infectious and non-infectious diseases; how the reasons for doing surveillance determine the system selected; and how to evaluate whether or not a given surveillance is providing the data needed to meet various goals. The impact of various biases on the conclusions derived from surveillance data will be explored.
Topics in Disease Surveillance: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
A discussion of major infectious diseases with emphasis on disease surveillance, investigative procedures, and prevention programs. Emphasis is on current problems in health agencies at a state, national, and international level.
Epidemiology and Control of Infectious Diseases: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course will integrate various social science disciplines and apply these perspectives to problems of HIV treatment and prevention, particularly in the developing world. Throughout the academic term, students will apply knowledge of behavioral science, epidemiology, quantitative and qualitative methods in the analysis of developing and evaluating HIV-related treatment and prevention interventions, including policy interventions. Course requirements will include the preparation of a major paper recommending interventions, country level budgets and evaluation designs for a specific developing country. Specific requirements for this paper will be distributed during the third class session.
Behavior and Policy Science in HIV Treatment and Prevention: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
This course aims to enhance course participants' ability to articulate and examine ethical issues surrounding responses to public health/healthcare challenges whether routine or during catastrophe. Discussions will be based on presentations and assigned readings for the class, and with an expectation that students will incorporate their own diverse views and approaches to moral and logistical challenges.
Ethical Challenges in Public Health Interventions: Catastrophic and Routine: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2011
The seminar will introduce core disciplines and concepts in public health, using a case-based, integrated approach. Examples of cases discussed include: respiratory disease and air pollution; tobacco control and prevention of smoking-related conditions; disease elimination or eradication via childhood immunization; environmental control and prevention of schistosomiasis; behavior change and prevention of HIV/AIDS; and novel economic approaches to improving healthcare delivery to impoverished groups.
Foundations of Public Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This seminar will explore current issues and controversies in public health approaches to sexual health promotion and STD control with a focus on pragmatic skills including program development and evaluation. Students will engage in independent research with interactive group discussions and student presentations.
Sexual Health Promotion and Sexually Transmitted Disease Control: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
The seminar will introduce core disciplines and concepts in public health, using a case-based, integrated approach. Examples of cases discussed include: respiratory disease and air pollution; tobacco control and prevention of smoking-related conditions; disease elimination or eradication via childhood immunization; environmental control and prevention of schistosomiasis; behavior change and prevention of HIV/AIDS; and novel economic approaches to improving healthcare delivery to impoverished groups.
Foundations of Public Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Epidemiological methods for designing, conducting, and interpreting epidemiological studies of persons occupationally or environmentally exposed to chemical and physical agents.
Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course is designed to introduce students to the field of social epidemiology and its role in understanding the social determinants of population health and health disparities. This course will provide a systematic and selected overview of literature in the field covering the history and development of the field of social epidemiology, theoretical perspectives, major topical areas, conceptual approaches, and current controversies related to theory, research methods, and research findings. Three principles will be emphasized throughout the course: 1) the ecological model, 2) the lifecourse approach, and 3) causality. These principles will provide a framework for the critical analysis of scholarly journal articles and the synthesis of information across content areas. This is a breadth course intended to provide an overview of the field of social epidemiology; and expose students to relevant areas of study. This is not a methods course.
Social Epidemiology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
This doctoral seminar is designed to provide an understanding of the complex (and often interactive) individual and environmental conditions that increase the risk of psychopathology in individuals across the life span. We will start by learning about general concepts important to an understanding of psychopathology and prevention of psychopathology, including the "biopsychosocial model," "psychological resilence," and different levels of preventive interventions. For each different area of psychopathology, we will consider: a) the core feature of disorder; b) key theory and empirical evidence regarding etiology and course, with a particular emphasis on understanding the range of risk and protective factors on the individual, family, and community level; and c) the implications of etiological understanding for public health efforts to prevent the particular disorder.
Mental Health and Psychopathology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course is designed to review, evaluate, and apply methods currently used in the field of social epidemiology. The course aims to teach approaches to forming clear research questions, and selecting the best method(s) to answer the questions posed. Initially we will discuss approaches to defining clear and specific research questions. We will then discuss recent controversies around the meaning of questions posed in social epidemiology, and the ability of currently used methods to answer questions in social epidemiology. Finally we will review, evaluate, and apply a range of different methods that are or could be used to answer questions in social epidemiology, again emphasizing the types of questions answered by these methods, and their ability to address the challenges to effectively answering questions in social epidemiology. There will be a mixture of discussion and lecture depending on the topic, with student participation and questions strongly encouraged.
Methods in Social Epidemiology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2012, Spring 2011
This course will address the role that structural inequalities assume in shaping reproductive health disparities. We will examine relevant epidemiological research, review and critique public health interventions, and discuss how research in this area can inform policy. The course will be organized around three modules, each linked to reproductive health: poverty, gender-based violence, and migration. Within each module, students will examine measurement, research design, and ethical challenges.
Structural Inequalities and Reproductive Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
This course will cover basic principles of human/population genetics and molecular biology relevant to understanding approaches to molecular and genetic epidemiology: approaches to genome-wide association studies; application of biomarkers to define exposures; recent developments in genomics, epigenomics and other -omics, including next generation sequencing technology and genomics in personalized medicine and health. Hands-on computer and wet laboratory will provide experience with modern research tools.
Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology and Human Health in the 21st Century: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017
This introductory course will cover basic principles of human/population genetics and molecular biology
relevant to understanding how data from the human genome are being used to study disease and other
health outcomes. The latest designs and methods for genome-wide association studies and other
approaches to identify genetic variants, environmental risk factors and the combined effects of gene and
environment important to disease and health will be presented. The application of biomarkers to define
exposures and outcomes will be explored. The course will cover recent developments in genomics,
epigenomics and other ‘omics’, including applications of the latest sequencing technology and
characterization of the human microbiome.,Terms offered: Not yet offered
This introductory course will cover basic principles of human/population genetics and molecular biology
relevant to understanding how data from the human genome are being used to study disease and other
health outcomes. The latest designs and methods for genome-wide association studies and other
approaches to identify genetic variants, environmental risk factors and the combined effects of gene and
environment important to disease and health will be presented. The application of biomarkers to define
exposures and outcomes will be explored. The course will cover recent developments in genomics,
epigenomics and other ‘omics’, including applications of the latest sequencing technology and
characterization of the human microbiome.
Human Genome, Environment and Human Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017
This introductory course will cover basic principles of human/population genetics and molecular biology
relevant to understanding how data from the human genome are being used to study disease and other
health outcomes. The latest designs and methods for genome-wide association studies and other
approaches to identify genetic variants, environmental risk factors and the combined effects of gene and
environment important to disease and health will be presented. The application of biomarkers to define
exposures and outcomes will be explored. The course will cover recent developments in genomics,
epigenomics and other ‘omics’, including applications of the latest sequencing technology and
characterization of the human microbiome.,Terms offered: Not yet offered
This introductory course will cover basic principles of human/population genetics and molecular biology
relevant to understanding how data from the human genome are being used to study disease and other
health outcomes. The latest designs and methods for genome-wide association studies and other
approaches to identify genetic variants, environmental risk factors and the combined effects of gene and
environment important to disease and health will be presented. The application of biomarkers to define
exposures and outcomes will be explored. The course will cover recent developments in genomics,
epigenomics and other ‘omics’, including applications of the latest sequencing technology and
characterization of the human microbiome.
Human Genome, Environment and Human Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Not yet offered
This introductory course will provide hands-on experience with modern wet laboratory techniques and computer analysis tools for studies in molecular and genetic epidemiology and other areas of genomics in human health. Students will also participate in critical review of journal articles. Students are expected to understand basic principles of human/population genetics and molecular biology, latest designs and methods for genome-wide association studies and other approaches to identify genetic variants, environmental risk factors and the combined effects of gene and environment important to human health. Students will learn how to perform DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction and methods for genotyping, sequencing, and cytogenetics.
Genetic Analysis Method: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
This course will teach students why and how clusters of illnesses/epidemics are investigated. Methods and approaches required for such investigations will be discussed in detail, using published articles from the scientific literature to provide examples.
Outbreak Investigation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2010, Fall 2009
This one semester course is an intensive introduction to public health emergency preparedness and response, and covers the following topic areas: the role of public health in disasters, natural disasters and severe weather, intentional mass threats (CBRNE), detecting and monitoring public health threats, post-disaster sampling, surveys, rapid needs assessments, public health emergency incident management system, emergency operations planning and exercises, infectious disease emergency readiness, environmental health emergency readiness, mental health emergency readiness, special needs and vulnerable populations, essentials of public health leadership during a disaster, essentials of crisis risk communication, essentials of investigating outbreaks, disaster medicine and mass casualty care, and personal and community disaster preparedness.
Public Health Preparedness & Emergency Response: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2008 10 Week Session, Summer 2008 3 Week Session, Summer 2007 3 Week Session
This intensive course covers the essential knowledge, skills, and abilities to conduct an epidemiologic field investigation including concepts for controlling infectious diseases; the epidemiologic approach and steps to public health action; conducting an outbreak investigation; conducting post-diseaster rapid health assessments; field sampling design and implementation; field survey design and implementation; design and management of field database systems; and analysis of outbreak modules using a computer laboratory. The computer lab component will emphasize basic analysis and interpretation.
Outbreak Investigations: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014
This one semester course is an intensive introduction to public health emergency preparedness and response, and covers the following topic areas: the role of public health in disasters; natural disasters and severe weather; intentional mass threats (CBRNE); biosurveillance: detecting and monitoring public health threat; post-disaster sampling, surveys, and rapid needs assessments; public health emergency incident management systems; emergency operations planning and exercises.
Public Health Preparedness and Emergency Response: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
For students with a basic understanding of epidemiology, biostatistics, and tumor biology. An introduction to the epidemiology of some major site-specific cancers, considering epidemiological approaches to the study of their causation, and implementation will be discussed.
Cancer Epidemiology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2011, Spring 2010
Ethical issues are as important for the field of epidemiology as they are for all human endeavors. Of special concern to epidemiologists are: informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, academic freedom, contractual obligations, beneficence and non-maleficence, scientific misconduct, and fraud. These are but a few of the issues being addressed currently by epidemiologists and which will be considered in this course.
Ethical Issues in Epidemiology Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course is designed to serve the emerging field of global disaster management. Topics include the analysis of past mega-disasters; global disaster trends; hazard identification, profiling, and analysis; concepts of risk and vulnerability and risk evaluation; structural and non-structural mitigation; multi-level disaster preparedness; pre-, peri-, and post-disaster response, including the provision of water, food, and shelter, and the management of volunteers; components of recovery, disaster effects on communities and societies; participation of governmental, non-governmental, and multilateral agencies and organizations in planning and response; role of the media, including social media.
Global Health Disaster Preparedness and Response: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2010, Fall 2009
This course traces the development of epidemiological methodology and theory from the "Golden Age" of Greece in the sixth century B.C. to modern practice at the turn of the 21st century. Consideration will also be given to historical events such as major epidemics and important research activities. The course provides students preparing for academic careers in epidemiology the background to teach and research the field. Case studies will be a major vehicle for accomplishing the course objectives. Original readings will be discussed.
History of Epidemiology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2012, Spring 2011
Practical application of epidemiologic methods in the developing country settings, including surveillance, surveys, case-control studies, and intervention trials. The applications of these methods to the study of infectious and non-infectious disease problems common in developing countries will be presented.
Practical Applications of Epidemiologic Methods in Developing Countries: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course presents general principles of microbial interactions with humans that result in infection and disease. Common themes are developed using examples of viral, bacterial, and parasitological pathogens that exemplify mechanisms of infectious disease. The epidemiology, pathogenesis, host immune response, diagnosis, treatment, and control will be presented for each infectious disease discussed.
Principles of Infectious Diseases: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course presents general principles of microbial interactions with humans that result in infection and disease. Common themes are developed using examples of viral, bacterial, and parasitological pathogens that exemplify mechanisms of infectious disease. The epidemiology, pathogenesis, host immune response, diagnosis, treatment, and control will be presented for each infectious disease discussed.
Principles of Infectious Diseases: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Module I: Practice in standard techniques for the isolation, identification, and characterization of infectious agents; laboratory safety. Module 2: Application of molecular methods to the identification and characterization of infectious agents, vectors, and hosts.
Infectious Disease Laboratory: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
The course will cover general principles and practical approaches in the use of molecular laboratory techniques to address infectious disease epidemiologic problems. It is designed for students with experience in the laboratory or in epidemiology, but not both. The principles to be discussed will include the use of molecular techniques in outbreak investigations, characterizations of dynamics of disease transmission, identifying vehicles, and quantifying attributable risks in sporadic infections, refining data stratification to assist case-control studies, distinguishing pathovars from non-pathogenic variants of organisms, doing surveillance, and identifying genetic determinants of disease transmissions. 3-units if a five-page paper completed.
Molecular Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2013
The objective of this course is to provide M.P.H. and Ph.D. students with an appreciation and understanding of the complex issues involved in conducting scientific, laboratory-based investigation in developing countries. We will discuss the many obstacles to establishing and sustaining research projects, such as poor infrastructure, insufficient financial and material resources, and lack of scientific information and interaction. More importantly, we will identify innovative solutions to overcoming these obstacles. The first half of the course will consist of presentations by U.S. and developing countries investigators who have long-term research experience in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. We will also discuss related issues such as ethical considerations, equitable collaborations, research capacity strengthening. During the second half of the course, students will give presentations on topics of their choice.
Infectious Disease Research in Developing Countries: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2013, Spring 2011
Analysis of viral and host factors that play a role in viral diseases of medical importance. Four units of credit given to doctoral students who write a research proposal on a topic other than that proposed for their dissertation.
Advanced Medical Virology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2014
This course for graduate students will explore the molecular and cellular basis of bacterial pathogenesis. The emphasis will be on model bacterial pathogens of mammals. The course also will include some aspects of bacterial genetics and physiology, immune response to infection, and the cell biology of host-parasite interactions. Taught concurrently with. Students enrolled in 262 also will be required to attend a weekly discussion of the primary literature, both current and classic. Each student will be required to present one paper.
Molecular and Cellular Basis of Bacterial Pathogenesis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course will be the principal immunology course for students in the field of public health. It is designed to teach both the basic biology of the human immune system and its response in health and disease, especially the specific response of the human immune system to major human pathogens. Four areas will be explored: 1) components of the immune system (spectrum of cell types and cell products); 2) different arms of the immune system including humoral, cell-mediated, innate, and mucosal immunity; 3) specific immune response to infection caused by viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasitic pathogens; and 4) disorders of the immune system unrelated to infectious disease. Through this course, students should not only gain a basic understanding of the human immune system, but also learn the functions and responses of the human immune system to diseases of infectious and non-infectious nature, and the relevance of these interactions in the context of public health problems.
Public Health Immunology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Examination of scientific, social, and policy dimensions of issues involving infectious diseases. Students select one topic for in-depth analysis and present findings in a public debate. Topics vary from year to year.
Current Issues in Infectious Diseases: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2015, Fall 2013
Advanced course in the molecular aspects of parasite immunology, molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, and genomics. For each parasite, the following areas will be covered: biology; disease spectrum; epidemiology; pathogenesis, immunology; and vaccine development. The lectures will focus on "state-of-the-art" research in relation to molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis, parasite adaptations for survival within the host, and strategies for drug and vaccine development and disease control and prevention. Course content will rely heavily on current literature.
Molecular Parasitology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
Topics include the basic biology of cancer; molecular biology of tumor viruses; mechanisms of viral carcinogenesis; characteristics of virally transformed cells; the challenge of proving the viral etiology of human cancers; the epidemiology, pathology, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of virally caused human cancers. The course format will include lectures and reading/discussion of original research publications. To be taken for three units if a term paper is written and for two units without a term paper.
Viruses and Human Cancer: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
This course will cover public health, microbiological, social, and economical issues related to foodborne diseases. Three areas will be explored: 1) categories, clinical manifestations, and disease processes of foodborne illnesses; 2) etiological agents causing foodborne illnesses; 3) investigation and prevention of foodborne illness. The course will discuss different types of foodborne diseases, clinical manifestations, and the interactions between etiological agents (pathogens and non-pathogens) and human hosts. We will cover pathogens that are the most frequently associated with foodborne illness including bacterial and viral pathogens such as Salmonella, E coli, hepatitis viruses and Norwalk-like gastroenteritus viruses. We will also study non-pathogen agents such as heavy metal, pesticide, and toxic chemicals. Futhermore, the course will discuss how to identify the etiological agents in outbreaks and possible measures that can be taken to minimize the risk to the public including vaccines and education. Finally, we will explore the social and economic issues involved in the food production, distribution, and consumption that contribute to foodborne diseases.
Foodborne diseases: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016
This is a graduate (Ph.D. and MPH) level course designed to describe the major zoonoses and their life cycle, disease manifestations, epidemiology, and methods for prevention and control. Available treatments, diagnostics, and public health and agriculture surveillance and “forecasting” programs will also be discussed. The most recent research on the molecular and cellular basis of the mechanisms and consequences of the “species” jump from other animals to humans will be reviewed. The global nature
of zoonotic diseases and the integration of multiple disciplines (molecular biology, immunology, epidemiology, evolutionary biology, ecology, animal science, veterinary medicine, etc.) will be emphasized.
Zoonotic Diseases: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course will look at and evaluate the principles underlying the control of infections in hospitals, the causes of these infections, current important topics in this field and future trends. Students will gain an appreciation of the national and local programs involved in HAI's, their major causes, antimicrobial control, and specific agents and procedures causing HAI's.
Hospital Associated Infections: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2013
Principles underlying the use of air monitoring methods in industry and the environment. Topics include behavior of gases, vapors, and aerosols; mechanisms of absorption and elimination of inhaled toxicants; methods for measuring of airborne chemicals and particles.
Characterization of Airborne Contaminants: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2013, Spring 2012, Spring 2011
Health Impact Assessment (HIA) refers to a diverse set of analytic and communicative practices that aim to inform and improve social decisions in order to improve the environmental, economic, and social conditions required for optimal propulation health. This course provides an introduction to HIA with a focus on the need for and application of HIA to land use and transportation planning and development. The objectives of the course include understanding and comparing the range of practices used to conduct Health Impact Assessments in the U.S. and internationally; identifying the opportunities and obstacles for using the environmental impact assessment as vehicles for health analysis; and development and application of environmental health assessment tools to inform decision-making as part of a class project.
Health Impact Assessment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Readings and lectures in occupational biomechanics. Topics to be covered are muscle, tendon, and joint biomechanics, material handling models, mechanisms of injury, hand tool design, and instrumentation issues. Students will prepare critical reviews of recent publications and design an engineering intervention to reduce work-related risk factors.
Ergonomics Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Topics in environmental medicine will provide students with an overview of the health impacts, disease mechanisms, and public health controversies related to selected environmental exposures. The course will cover established environmental diseases as well as impacts of some emerging exposures of concern. The focus will primarily be on pathophysiology, issues related to exposure pathways, and the susceptibilities of specific human populations. No prior medical knowledge required.
Current Topics in Environmental Medicine: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Not yet offered
Students will identify the components of occupational tasks that contribute to musculoskeletal injury, quantify the risks using the most relevant ergonomic assessment tools, and integrate that information into conclusions regarding the acceptability of the risk. This course will challenge students to assess many practical examples from a wide variety of workplace sectors, including manufacturing, health care, agriculture and others, and interpret data from sources that will not always agree, so that the decisions can be made and defended.
Introduction to Physical Ergonomics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This survey course covers the breadth of hazards to chemical, biological, and physical agents of concern to environmental health professionals. Lectures are presented by experts on particular topics that emphasize the activities involved in professional practice. Students will also meet twice monthly with the instructor to discuss advanced readings and assignments related to the lecture topics. Students will conduct a project on a topic of current interest in some aspect of environmental health (under the guidance of the instructor). This course is designed for MPH students in Environmental Health Sciences and other graduate-level students interested in an overview course on environmental health.
Introduction to Environmental Health Sciences: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Direct and indirect methods and procedures for the estimation and control of human exposure to chemical, physical, and biological agents of concern to health in the community and in occupational settings. Includes review of measurement technologies, exposure assessment strategies, and multipathway analyses used by regulatory agencies. Also covers exposure control options and strategies, including administrative procedures, personal protective equipment, and various engineering control approaches.
Exposure Assessment and Control: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Introduction to toxicology covering basic principles, dose-response, toxicity testing, chemical metabolism, mechanisms of toxicity, carcinogenesis, interpretation of toxicological data for risk assessment, and target organ toxicity.
Toxicology I: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course will focus on cutting-edge issues involving real-world toxicology in drug discovery, pesticide regulation, stem cell research, etc. Many well-known toxicologists, regulators, and consultants from pharmaceutical companies, petroleum industry, private consulting firms, non-profit institutes, federal and state regulatory agencies in the Bay Area will be invited to talk to our participating students. Some of the speakers are our school's alumni who understand exactly what our students need to know before entering the real world. Learning outside the classroom will be another major focus and different from other existing toxicology courses offered at Berkeley. This new class will provide students a chance to visit some of the real-world sites allowing students to see and feel what they really need to know and to learn. To better prepare our students for the real world, we will use combined teaching/learning styles including lecture with discussion sections, site-visits, hand-on experience in a toxicology laboratory, and student group assignments or projects.
Practical Toxicology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2010, Spring 2009
The application of toxicology to answer questions about safety and risk. Using a case-study approach, participants will learn how to interpret toxicological data and apply their knowledge to evaluating the risk presented by exposures to toxic chemicals, including drugs and environmental contaminants. Discussion of current topics of controversy in the field of toxicology.
Advanced Toxicology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
The course covers monitoring, control and regulatory policy of microbial, chemical and radiological drinking water contaminants. Additional subjects include history and iconography of safe water, communicating risks to water consumers and a bottled water versus tap water taste test as part of the discussion on aesthetic water quality parameters.
Drinking Water and Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2013
The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) database utilized by provides estimates of illness, injury, and death by disease type, age, sex, and world region in a consistent and coherent manner. The course will explore the ways such a detailed database makes possible a wide range of new types of analysis of health priorities and the relationship of database will also be introduced. This seminar will also provide an opportunity for reading and discussion of the basic assumptions, data limitations, critiques, and methodological difficulties of the GBD. It is intended to be a true seminar relying heavy on class participation. The homework assignments will be greatly facilitated by use of computer spreadsheets.
Global Burden of Disease and Comparative Risk Assessment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Scientific knowledge and analyses are important to the development of public policies that address the impact of the environment on health. The limits of existing knowledge and uncertainties in research results create significant challenges in applying science to answer critical questions. This course critically examines how scientific information is used in policy decisions. Case studies of current issues address characterization of scientific knowledge, interpretation of science in policy contexts, scientific integrity, and factors in addition to science that influence decisions. Assignments prepare students to effectively translate technical knowledge for multi-disciplinary and lay audiences and to participate in public policy proceedings. Core materials address differences between regulatory and market-based approaches; emerging paradigms including the precautionary principle and environmental justice; and key elements of risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis.
Science and Policy for Environment and Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2013
This course explores the Public Health effects of global climate change: physical basis of climate change, including causes & projections; burden of disease stemming from global climate change, emphasis on impacts in the developing world, global & local equity issues, interaction between climate change mitigation/adaptation activities & existing global health initiatives; direct exposures (extreme heat, drought, precipitation, sea-level rise), indirect exposures (vector-borne & zoonotic diseases, ecosystem disruption, water quantity & quality, land arability & food production, population displacement). After taking this course, students will be well positioned for further work on global environmental change and health.
Health Implications of Climate Change: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
The course will provide a basic foundation in the physical mechanisms of, responses to, and health implications of climate change. We will explore the variety of epidemiologic, risk assessment, and statistical methods used to understand the impacts of climate change on health across diverse demographic groups. The public health implications, positive and negative, of efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change will be elaborated, including discussions of ethical, political, and economic aspects of these efforts. Students will be responsible for leading class discussions and presenting a poster on their choice of a topic related to climate change and health.
Health Implications of Climate Change: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Geographic information systems (GIS) have emerged as an important tool for performing health and environmental analyses. GIS is generally seen as a spatial analysis system for the organization, storage, retrieval, and analysis of data for which the location and other spatial attributes are considered important (e.g., incidence of a specific disease condition in relation to a pollution source). GIS also encompasses the organizational structure, personnel, software, and hardware needed to support spatial analysis. For many health and social scientists, GIS has evolved into a new lens for viewing their work. The course will provide students with an introduction to this exciting and expanding field of inquiry. On successful completion of the course you should possess the following skills and knowledge: 1) A basic understanding of the fundamental geographic and cartographic concepts that underlie GIS. 2) Working knowledge of ArcGIS, a powerful "desktop" GIS software package that runs in a Windows environment. 3) Introductory knowledge of past, present, and possible future applications of GIS for health and environmental studies.
Geographic Information Science for Public and Environmental Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
Using published studies as examples, we will focus on key epidemiologic methods as they arise in the study of environmental hazards in the community and workplace. Selected topics include the validity of exposure assessment for both community-based and workplace-based studies, specific forms of selection bias (e.g., healthy worker survivor effect), measurement error (e.g., exposure misclassification), time varying confounding, and analytical methods to model exposure-reponse (e.g., person-years, causal models, spatial anaylsis, and nonlinear models) in environmental and occupational epidemiology. Grades will be based on class participation, homework, and final project.
Case Studies in Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017
The course takes a global perspective, examining the environmental phenomena that influence the transmission of infectious diseases. The epidemiological significance of environmental processes are explored, including weather, climate extremes, hydrology, development projects, and land usage change. Analytical tools are discussed and critiqued with respect to their ability to resolve the role of environmental factors in shaping disease distributions and pathogen fate, transport, and persistence.
Environmental Determinants of Infectious Disease: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2014, Spring 2012
This is an advanced level course designed to cover current issues related to the biological and analytical aspects of vaccine development and utilization. Latest developments in recombinant vaccine technology, vaccine delivery systems, "naked DNA" vaccines, "designer" vaccines, new adjuvants, anti-tumor vaccines, epidemiological approaches to assess vaccine efficacy, effectiveness, and safety will be discussed and covered.
Current Topics in Vaccinology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
This course presents an analysis of the core issues for the responsible and ethical conduct of research in biomedical sciences. Issues pertinent to standards and responsibilities of research conduct, authorship and publication practices, peer review and privileged information, conflicts of interest, collaboration, and use of animals and humans in research will be defined and explored. The legal and regulatory structures, definitions of misconduct and process of misconduct investigations will be presented.
Integrity in the Conduct of Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course presents a brief introduction to the emerging field of spirituality and health. We examine scholarly and scientific views of links between spirituality, religion, and health. Topics include highlights and overviews of the rapidly emerging scientific evidence base, public health relevance, collaborations with faith-based organizations, and other practical applications.
Public Health and Spirituality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Spring 2014, Fall 2013
A series of lectures and seminars providing detailed scrutiny of selected topics in the history of medicine, public health, and the allied health sciences. The precise content will vary from year to year and may reflect, in part, topics of class interest. Students electing to take the course for 3 units will be assigned a research topic.
Topics in the History of Medicine and Public Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Injuries are a major and often neglected health problem with substantial human and economic costs. Injuries are the leading cause of death from the first year of life to age 45, and the leading cause of lost potential years of life. This course provides an historical and conceptual framework within which to consider injuries (both intentional and unintentional) as social, and public health problems. Through review of epidemiology and intervention studies, course work will consider the causes and consequences of traumatic injury within developmental, social and economic contexts. Particular emphasis is placed on alternative strategies for injury prevention and on the relative benefits of intervention at different levels.
Public Health Injury Prevention and Control: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course applies principles of engineering, behavioral science, and vision science to preventing traffic collisions and subsequent injury. A systematic approach to traffic safety will be presented in the course, and will include (1) human behavior, vehicle design, and roadway design as interacting approaches to preventing traffic crashes and (2) vehicle and roadway designs as approaches to preventing injury once a collision has occured. Implications of intelligent transportation system concepts for traffic safety will be discussed throughout the course.
Traffic Safety and Injury Control: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This seminar is required for preventive medicine residents, but is also open to other physicians and medical students interested in preventive medicine and public health practice. It provides an overview of preventive medicine practice, especially those areas covered by the American Board of Preventive Medicine examination in public health and preventive medicine. The objectives of this seminar are to review basic principles and practices of health care organization and financing, quality assurance, clinical practice guidelines, clinical preventive services and health care delivery for the underserved and to describe the role of the preventive medicine physician in health care organizations.
Preventive Medicine Residency Seminar: Managed Care and Preventive Medicine: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This seminar is required for preventive medicine residents, but is also open to other physicians and medical students interested in preventive medicine and public health practice. It provides an overview of preventive medicine practice, especially those areas covered by the American Board of Preventive Medicine examination in public health and preventive medicine. The objectives of this seminar are to review basic principles and practices of public administration as they relate to the management of a governmental public health agency and to describe the role of the preventive medicine physician as a leader and administrator in those agencies.
Preventive Medicine Residency Seminar: Public Administration: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2017 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2015 10 Week Session
This hybrid seminar course consists of both online and face-to-face instruction, with the objective of mastering, at least partially, the following competencies: basic leadership skills for public health leaders, ability to design and conduct a needs assessment and stakeholder analysis, the ability to critically analyze a public health journal article, the ability to conduct an ethical analysis in public health, basic negotation skills, and the ability to complete a Human Subjects Protocol (IRB) application.
Interdisciplinary Health Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
A discussion of current developments and issues in public health of interest to faculty and students of the department as a whole. Content varies from semester to semester depending upon current issues and interests.
Health Issues Seminars: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Series of skills-based workshops and sessions to introduce students to specialized leadership competencies needed in the public health workplace. These workshops complement the School of Public Health’s (SPH) core curriculum and are selected based on the Council on Linkages between Academia and Public Health Practice, and regular feedback from public health practitioners, faculty and students. Workshop facilitators include UC Berkeley faculty, public health practitioners and consultants with expertise in the topic areas. Designed to teach the core public health skills relevant to pre-internship preparation and prepare students for professional success. Cases draw on past scenarios/challenges experienced in the PH field.
Preparation for Public Health Practice: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2017
Current topics and special issues in the health field.
Seminars for M.P.H. Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Discussion and analysis of dissertation research projects, as well as of conceptual and methodological problems in planning and conducting health research.
Doctoral Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016

Seminars: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Designed to permit any qualified graduate student to pursue special study under the direction of a faculty member.
Special Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2016
Supervised experience relevant to specific aspects of public health in off-campus organizations for graduate students. Regular individual meetings with faculty sponsor and written reports required.
Field Study in Public Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007

Field Study in Public Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2009 10 Week Session, Summer 2004 10 Week Session, Summer 2001 10 Week Session

Field Study in Public Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2004 10 Week Session, Summer 2003 10 Week Session, Summer 2002 10 Week Session

Field Study in Public Health: Environmental Health Sciences: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2004 10 Week Session, Summer 2003 10 Week Session, Summer 2002 10 Week Session

Field Study in Public Health: Epidemiology/Biostatistics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2004 10 Week Session, Summer 2003 10 Week Session, Summer 2002 10 Week Session

Field Study in Public Health: Health Policy and Management: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2004 10 Week Session, Summer 2003 10 Week Session, Summer 2002 10 Week Session

Field Study in Public Health: Maternal and Child Health: Read More [+]