EMPH Tracks: Tailored to Meet Your Needs

The Executive MPH program offers a rigorous Master’s of Public Health degree designed to meet the needs of working professionals, both in the program’s content and course logistics. In particular, onsite intensives emphasize training in strategic leadership, management, and communications in order to best serve our students’ professional goals at this stage in their careers. For many students, these core requirements are sufficiently tailored to meet their needs, and they are happy to choose their elective courses based on their individual interests and aspirations, without constraint. For others who seek additional training in a particular methodology or subject matter, our EMPH offers four tracks: Health Policy, Health Informatics, Applied Analytic Methods and Epidemiology, and Environmental Health Sciences. Students who pursue a particular track have that track’s director assigned as their formal advisor, and complete the corresponding three-course sequence, detailed below.

The Health Policy Track (HP) equips students to analyze, identify, and develop policy strategies to address pressing population health challenges and collaborate effectively across different levels and sectors of government in to responding to public health threats. Building facility with foundational economic and legal frameworks as well as understanding of key regulatory authorities and constraints in the US context, HP students will not only gain a critical toolkit for policy analysis and development but also apply it to address concrete health threats in the track’s culminating, case-based course.

• Microeconomic Frameworks for Health Policy (EMPH 554)
  This course introduces key conceptual frameworks from microeconomics with a focus on understanding what is needed for a market to “work” (i.e. allocate goods efficiently), common market failures and policy responses to address them, and how these tools can be used to address current challenges in public health and health care policy.
• Public Health Law (EMPH 555)
  This course surveys public health law in the United States and considers the role that law can and should play in preserving population health and promoting health equity. Students will also consider the conflicts and problems that emerge when law is used for those endeavors, as well as the legal rights and principles that limit government’s public health powers. To understand the legal foundations of public health, students will study the sources and nature of government power and its limitations. The class examines the U.S. Constitution, federal, state and local laws, and administrative law. Case studies will demonstrate the governmental tools that can shape and improve public health, as well as relevant challenges and legal obstacles.
• Case-Based Studies in Public Health Leadership (EMPH 556)
  The course immerses students in real-world scenarios frequently encountered by State Health Officers and other public health leaders, emphasizing the critical thinking and decision-making skills needed to navigate complex public health challenges. To introduce key regulatory and structural frameworks at various levels of governmental, we will begin with an overview of public health authorities across agencies, followed by a series of scenarios illustrating the multifaceted role of public health leaders. Each week focuses on a case study highlighting the interplay between federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial health authorities. Through lectures, readings, assignments, and discussions, students will develop a comprehensive understanding of collaborative public health responses, equipping them to lead effectively in high-pressure situations.

The Health Informatics Track (HI) trains students in the frameworks and methods needed to evaluate and design health informatics technologies, starting with an overview of bioinformatics, clinical decision support systems, and data governance and standards, before progressing to computational methods, visualizations, database architecture and design, and the principles of natural language processing and machine learning.

• Introduction to Health Informatics (BIS 542E)
  The course introduces clinical and translational informatics. Topics include (1) overview of biomedical informatics, (2) design, function, and evaluation of clinical information systems, (3) clinical decision making and practice guidelines, (4) clinical decision support systems, (5) informatics support of clinical research, (6) privacy and confidentiality of clinical data, (7) standards, and (8) topics in translational bioinformatics.
• Computational Methods for Informatics (BIS 544E)
  This course introduces the key computational methods and concepts necessary for taking an informatics project from start to finish: using APIs to query online resources, reading and writing common biomedical data formats, choosing appropriate data structures for storing and manipulating data, implementing computationally efficient and parallelizable algorithms for analyzing data, and developing appropriate visualizations for communicating health information.
• Topics in Biomedical Informatics and Data Science (BIS 543E)
  Students learn the common unifying themes that serve as the foundation for different areas of biomedical informatics, including clinical, neuro-, and genome informatics. The course is designed for learners with coursework and coding experience using Structured Query Language (SQL) and Python, who plan to build databases and computational tools for use in biomedical research.

The Environmental Health Sciences Track (EHS) develops the skills to measure, monitor, review, and assess some of the most significant drivers of population health, ranging from climate change and air quality issues to persistent 'forever' chemicals and micro/nanoplastics, as well as their intersection with social and economic factors to shape health outcomes and disparities. EHS students gain the knowledge and insight to not only study these challenges, but to tackle and solve them.

• Hazard Identification: Toxicity of Environmental Chemicals and Green Chemistry Solutions (EHS 541E)
  Learn the foundation for understanding the role of toxicology in public health protection, with a focus on 21st-century techniques and challenges. Students will be introduced to basic principles of toxicology (such as dose-response, mechanisms of toxicity, and cellular defense), and then move on to advanced topics, such as early life vulnerability, low-level exposure to mixtures, systems biology approaches, green chemistry solutions, and the problems presented by chemicals that are common in consumer products and the built environment.
• Environmental Exposure Assessment (EHS 540E)
  Individuals are exposed to a multitude of chemical, biological, and physical environmental agents as they carry out their daily activities. This course will provide tools to assess environmental stressors encountered in the indoor, outdoor, and occupational environment and review methods for evaluating the quality of exposure data. Students will consider how to apply the latest epidemiological and toxicological research to their own work and projects.
• Risk Assessment and Policy (EHS 542E)
  This course introduces the methodology, interpretation, applications, and communication surrounding the use of risk assessment in public health. Students will gain an understanding of how toxicology information on hazard and dose-response is incorporated with exposure information to predict the health risk to a wide variety of populations. Students will develop a risk assessment for a real-world exposure issue.

The Applied Analytic Methods and Epidemiology Track (AAME) provides rigorous training in epidemiologic methods, applied data analysis, and conduct of systematic reviews of the scientific literature. These are essential topics not only for those who want to strengthen their research skills, but also for policymakers, administrators, and healthcare advocates engaged in data-informed decision-making.

• Principles of Epidemiology II (CDE 540E)
  This is an intermediate-level course on epidemiologic principles and methods. Students learn to (1) evaluate the scientific merit and feasibility of epidemiologic study designs; (2) review, critique, and evaluate epidemiologic reports and research articles; (3) perform epidemiologic calculations; and (4) draw appropriate inferences from epidemiologic data, all at the intermediate level.
• Applied Analytic Methods in Epidemiology (CDE 541E)
  Students are given a comprehensive overview of data management and data analysis techniques. The SAS statistical software program is used. Students learn how to create and manipulate data sets and variables using SAS; identify appropriate statistical tests and modeling approaches to evaluate epidemiologic associations; and perform a broad array of univariate, bivariate, and multivariable analyses using SAS and interpret the results.
• Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses: Methodology of Synthesizing Evidence (CDE 543E)
  Evidence-based medicine and health care uses best current evidence in addressing clinical or public health questions. This course introduces principles of evidence-based practice in formulating clinical or public health questions, systematically searching for evidence, and applying it to the question. Types of questions considered include: examining the comparative effectiveness and safety of clinical and public health interventions, disease etiology (risk factor analysis), diagnostic testing, and prognosis. Particular consideration is given to the methodology of synthesizing evidence in a systematic review. Also addressed is the role of evidence in informing economic analysis of health care programs, and clinical and public health practice guidelines. Using a problem-based approach, students contribute actively to the classes and small-group sessions. Students complete a systematic review in their own field of interest using Cochrane Collaboration methodology and software.