MPH International Health (ILE) Appendices

APPENDIX A: AMENDED 2024 MPH COMPETENCIES

Foundational MPH Competencies

EVIDENCE-BASED APPROACHES TO PUBLIC HEALTH

1. Apply epidemiological methods to the breadth of settings and situations in public health practice.
2. Select quantitative and qualitative data collection methods appropriate for a given public health context.
3. Analyze quantitative and qualitative data using biostatistics, informatics, computer-based programming and software, as appropriate.
4. Interpret results of data analysis for public health research, policy or practice.

PUBLIC HEALTH & HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS

1. Compare the organization, structure and function of health care, public health and regulatory systems across national and international settings.
2. Discuss the means by which structural bias, social inequities and racism undermine health and create challenges to achieving health equity at organizational, community and systemic levels.

PLANNING & MANAGEMENT TO PROMOTE HEALTH

1. Assess population needs, assets and capacities that affect communities’ health.
2. Apply awareness of cultural values and practices to the design, implementation, or critique of public health policies or programs.
3. Design a population-based policy, program, project or intervention.
4. Explain basic principles and tools of budget and resource management.
5. Select methods to evaluate public health programs.

POLICY IN PUBLIC HEALTH

1. Discuss the policy-making process, including the roles of ethics and evidence.
2. Propose strategies to identify relevant communities and individuals and build coalitions and partnerships for influencing public health outcomes.
3. Advocate for political, social or economic policies and programs that will improve health in diverse populations.
4. Evaluate policies for their impact on public health and health equity.

LEADERSHIP

1. Apply leadership and/or management principles to address a relevant issue.
2. Apply negotiation and mediation skills to address organizational or community challenges.
3. Select communication strategies for different audiences and sectors.
4. Communicate audience-appropriate public health content, both in writing and through oral presentation to a non-academic, non-peer audience with attention to factors such as literacy and health literacy.
5. Describe the importance of cultural humility in communicating public health content.

INTERPROFESSIONAL AND/OR INTERSECTORAL PRACTICE

1. Integrate perspectives from other sectors and/or professions to promote and advance population health

SYSTEMS THINKING

1. Apply a systems thinking tool to visually represent a public health issue in a format other than standard narrative.

General Track Competencies

1. Identify basic theories, concepts and models from a range of social and behavioral disciplines that are used in public health research and practice.
2. Analyze the role of social determinants in the onset, development and solution of public health problems.
3. Identify resources, methodologies and quantitative and qualitative application of research in public health.
4. Apply ethical principles to public health program planning, implementation and evaluation.
5. Analyze how principles of linguistic competence, cultural competency and health literacy apply in a public health situation.
6. Apply evidence-based principles and the scientific knowledge base to critical evaluation and decision-making in public health.

Environmental Health Competencies

1. Identify sources, means of exposure, and control methods for the principal chemical, physical and biological agents that affect human health.
2. Develop designs and interpret risk evaluations for human health.
3. Develop effective risk communication techniques.
4. Evaluate the impact of environmental intervention on human health.
5. Develop preventive measures and environmental control for public health.
6. Write reports related to field investigations.
7. Use appropriate statistical tools for each individual situation.
8. Establish pertinent recommendations after analyzing data of a research project.
9. Recognize environmental health problems as an indispensable component of public health.
10. Apply ethical and legal values in any public health investigation.

Epidemiology Competencies

1. Describe the methodology of basic epidemiologic study designs (e.g., cross-sectional, case-control, cohort, and randomized controlled trial) to address hypotheses under different circumstances.
2. Describe how to collect reliable data regarding priority health-related phenomena using public health surveillance systems.
3. Utilize the application of statistical and epidemiological methods that are critical to epidemiologic inquiry; manage and manipulate data sets in statistical and epidemiological analysis software packages.
4. Application of comprehensive knowledge of health needs of a population by the appropriate interpretation of indicators of risk, morbidity, disability, mortality and burden of diseases.
5. Apply critical thinking using epidemiological designs to explain exposures and potential associations that influence health and disease.
6. Recognize potential ethical and legal issues and implement the concepts of ethical conduct and legal principles of research in epidemiologic studies.

Appendix B: Student-Faculty Meeting for the Comprehensive Exam

Appendix C: Meeting with the students’ writing consultant

Appendix D: Policy of comprehensive retake

Appendix E: Tentative ILE 2024-2025 Calendar

TENTATIVE * INTEGRATIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCE CALENDAR