Global Public Health (MPH) with concentrations in Environmental Health, Precision Health and Global Public Health Policy and Management

The Master of Global Public Health (MPH) program provides postgraduate education to prepare students for a career in several essential and innovative areas of interdisciplinary specialization through a sound foundation in the biomedical, engineering, and data sciences. The MPH program also recognizes the need of the practitioner to be cognizant of the social, behavioral, policy and regulatory dimensions of public health in the regional and global context of today’s world. This program, through its implementation science and engineering perspective, will prepare practitioners with a mission of innovation, implementation, education, and service as global citizens committed to health, disease identification, mitigation, and prevention. This is essential to meet global public health workforce needs in our region.

Program Goals and Objectives

The mission of the MPH is to prepare graduates to advance the public’s health through education, health promotion, and the improvement of health outcomes of populations and individuals domestically and globally by fostering the critical thinking, leadership, and decision-making of a knowledgeable workforce and scholars.

Core Values on which the programs are based:

Excellence in pedagogy and mentorship of students;
Excellence in recruitment of the highest quality faculty, staff, and students;
Engagement in interdisciplinary education on campus, in the community, and in the region;
Integrity, with mutual respect and consideration of cultural differences, religious and socioeconomic status;
Inclusivity, through the recognition of the uniqueness of individuals, domestically and globally;
Creating an environment that nurtures and fosters dialogs across the campus, community, and globe;
Empowerment of global citizens, women and men, and communities to make a difference in transforming challenges to opportunities.

The curriculum was developed with the following program goals guiding its development:

1. Implement a competency-based curriculum and systematic assessment to ensure that graduates are prepared with the knowledge, values, and skills to assume leadership roles in global public health, as researchers and practitioners

2. Integrate experiential inter-professional teamwork with social and global perspectives into coursework, fieldwork, and thesis projects designed to foster the development of core public health competencies and a commitment to achieving health equity in community service in diverse communities

3. Link public health research and practice by engaging faculty, students, public health and medical professionals and the community in conducting public health scholarly projects and applied research designed to advance the field and practice.

4. Establish a synergy between disciplines with the focus of translation, implementation, and assessment outside the classroom.

5. Foster a holistic approach that respects the individual, the public, the global community, and the environment to ensure sustainability and responsibility and accountability.

Learning Outcomes

The following outcomes for the Programs in Global Public Health are based on the recommendations of the CePH, the accrediting body for Public Health. They also reflect the core public health competencies identified by the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH).

Global PH Program Outcomes:

Upon completion of the MPH graduates will be prepared to:

1. Function with competency in the general five pillars of public health (Social & Behavioral Sciences, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Environmental Health, and Health Policy and Management) as well as other functional competency areas identified by CePH.

2. Collaborate with communities and community-based health care professionals on public health initiatives.

3. Assume beginning leadership roles in public health (specific to tracks) and in organizations and coalitions that advance public health.

4. Critically analyze research evidence and relevant data (e.g. big data) to determine health care trends, best practices, and develop appropriate public health interventions.

5. Manage public health projects through assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation and sustainability to realize best practices.

6. Communicate effectively and efficiently to foster collaboration, teamwork, and achievement of knowledge-practices dissemination and health outcomes for improved wellness, quality of life and optimal intervention

A distinguishing feature of the proposed MPH. The Precision Health concentration elucidates our commitment in providing our students training in an emerging, cutting-edge, and growing area of expertise. US National Institute of Health [NIH (2017)] is promoting the initiative into Precision Health by initiating the “All of Us” research program with the goal of using new technology to create some of the largest and most diverse longitudinal cohorts in history. The Dean of Stanford School of Medicine, Dr. Minor (2016), highlighted the importance of fostering Precision Health as a way to promote new integrations between health and other fields such as engineering, computer science, and business innovation to achieve our biggest common end: making people healthy. Precision Health, as interpreted in the proposed programs, brings together strengths in targeted delivery of nanoformulation (drugs, genes) with the personalized-medical approaches of biomarker diagnostics, pharmaco- and toxicogenomics, and gene-environment interactions. It also takes a holistic systems approach of the “omics” disciplines (genomics, proteomics, metabalomics), internal environment (e.g., microbiome), external environment, in identifying risk and intervention in nervous system disorders and mental wellbeing. It is based on an appreciation of individual differences that impact on intervention and therapy. These programs, built on engagement, are also intimately keyed in to the need for interpretation of risk to the public through health communication. Health communication is essential to motivate healthy behavior and reduce health risk, and the burden of disease in communities, as well as at institutions and agencies throughout the nation and region, including the Ministry of Health and Population, the World Health Organization, US Agency for International Development (USAID), and governorate and local health departments, as well as the media.

Students

Students that may be interested in the MPH degree are students with a Bachelor’s degrees from an accredited institution with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 in their major or higher including: 1) Current AUC students of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Math and Actuarial Sciences, Engineering disciplines, Business, Social and Behavioral Sciences, and from majors with concentrations in environment, behavior, management, policy and management; 2) Students from other academic institutions with a wide range of backgrounds who are interested in expanding their career options in public health particularly current employees from local Departments and Ministries of Health and health agencies such as hospitals, physicians, pharmacists, dentists, veterinarians, nurses, safety engineers, agricultural engineers and chemists. The MPH is one of the most sought-after graduate degree by MDs, who account for 15-20% of graduates from PH programs.; and 3) current employees such as professionals working in hospitals, insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, sustainability and other areas seeking to improve their skills and be eligible for a wider range of career options.

Degree Requirements

Admission

A Bachelor’s degree in the sciences, medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, nursing or engineering, with a minimum GPA of 3.0 out of 4.0, or equivalent, is required for admission into the MPH program. Students with backgrounds in the social and behavioral sciences, policy, management and business can be admitted into selected tracks, but are subject to the core curriculum. Admission is also subject to the general university requirements for graduate programs. For those students whose grade records indicate promising ability, but who otherwise may lack adequate preparation in sciences, biomedicine, or engineering, admission may be granted under the requirement that additional probationary courses will be taken.

Program Objectives

The objectives of the Master of Public Health (MPH) are:

To introduce students to a combination of fundamentals and field implementation research experience with an appreciation for community engagement, communication, and empowerment in affecting change through behavior, best practices, and policy pertinent to Public Health within the local, regional and global communities. It is also aimed at creating a knowledgeable and needed workforce to tackle the challenges and goals of the UN SDGs.
Train students to function with competency in the general five pillars of public health (Social & Behavioral Sciences, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Environmental Health, and Health Policy and Management) as well as other functional competency areas identified by the Council on Education for Public Health (CePH).  Prepare and enable students to collaborate with communities and community-based health care professionals on public health initiatives.
Empower students to assume beginning leadership roles in public health (specific to tracks) and in organizations and coalitions that advance public health.
Educate students to critically analyze research evidence and relevant data (e.g. big data) to determine health care trends, best practices, and develop appropriate public health interventions
Prepare and enable students to manage public health projects through assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation and sustainability to realize best practices.
Train students to communicate effectively and efficiently, in writing and orally, to foster collaboration, teamwork, and achievement of knowledge-practices dissemination and health outcomes for improved wellness, quality of life and optimal intervention.

The MPH Requirements

Depending on the specific track, a minimum of 42 credit hours* is required for the MPH, as defined by CePH and ASPPH . This consists of 24 credits hours of core courses, inclusive of 9 credits of research seminar and thesis research, and an additional 18 credit hours of coursework in a given track.

Advisors, Advisory Committee, and Study Plan for MPH

During SCI 5940 - Graduate Thesis Seminar (3 cr.) , for the MPH students, this is the second full semester, the student will have identified a track and focus of interest. In discussion with faculty and the Program Director, a primary Research Advisor will be identified. A preliminary research proposal draft will be developed during SCI 5940 - Graduate Thesis Seminar (3 cr.) . The student, together with the Research Advisor, will develop a study and research plan for the remaining year. It is imperative that this be done in a timely manner to insure scheduling of appropriate course work and ensure student success.

Concentrations

The courses of the core and tracks were selected or developed to reflect the themes supported by the association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) (2012) Framing the Future: The Second 100 years of Education for Public Health”, the WHO Eastern Mediterranean priority of Human Resources for Health (http://www.who.int/alliance-hpsr/projects/middleeast-polforum/en/), and emerging challenges in Public Health, regionally and globally. These include non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular, diabetes, obesity, malnutrition, congenital defects, mental and neurodegenerative disorders), early detection, surveillance and intervention (Precision Health) [The State of Health in the Arab World, 1990-2010: An Analysis of the Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors. (2014). The Lancet, 383:309-320]. This document outlines the knowledge, skills, and outcomes expected in Public Health programs.

These themes (tracks) are: