University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health

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University of North Texas Health Science Center
School of Public Health

• Elizabeth Medders
• SPH Office of Student and
• Academic Services

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What is Public Health?

• Public health professionals monitor and evaluate
  the health needs of entire communities, promote
  healthy practices and behaviors, and work to
  identify and eliminate hazards, often
  environmental or occupational in nature, to
  assure that populations stay healthy.

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Distinguishing Public Health Medicine

• Public health focuses on populations assessing
  and monitoring health problems and/or
  implementing strategies to promote health and
  prevent disease in groups of people
• Medicine focuses on the individual patient
  diagnosing symptoms and treating and/or
  preventing diseases on a person by
• person basis

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Goal of the DO/MPH Dual Degree Program

• The primary goal of this dual degree program is
  to provide clinical professionals with
  specialized public health training so they can
  develop, integrate and apply culturally-competent
  social, psychological and biomedical approaches
  to the promotion and preservation of health.

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Advantages to the DO/MPH Dual Degree Program

• Assess health characteristics and risk factors in
  populations
• Plan, implement and evaluate an intervention to
  improve the health of a population
• Incorporate preventive practices into care of
  individual patients
• Investigate an outbreak of disease or symptoms in
  a population
• Use appropriate data to formulate public health
  policy
• Conduct research and evaluate health outcomes

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Combining the two degrees, medicine and public
health

• fosters a better appreciation of the interplay
  between community factors and individual
  behaviors on the health status of patients
• creates a better understanding of the basis of
  treatment and treatment outcomes for individual
  patients and
• provides an understanding of the delivery of
  health services, including the economic and legal
  aspects.

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Employment Opportunities for DO/MPH Graduates

• The MPH degree offers the physician a significant
  advantage when seeking jobs which involve
  planning and managing health systems, performing
  clinical research, determining the causes of
  disease, or planning and implementing disease
  control strategies.
• Physicians with the MPH degree work in health
  departments, federal agencies, managed care and
  other health provider organizations, schools of
  public health and medicine, in the private
  practice arena, and in many other
  federal/international agencies.

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Major Disciplines in Public Health

• Biostatistics
• Environmental Health
• Epidemiology
• Health Management and Policy
• Social and Behavioral Sciences

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Biostatistics

• Involves the methodology and application of
  statistics to analyze public health problems
• Develop statistical methods for clinical trials
  and other health studies

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Environmental Health

• Investigation and mitigation of risk associated
  with exposure to environmental and occupational
  hazards
• Identify hazardous exposures
• Study health effects of exposures
• Employ risk assessment and management tools to
  minimize adverse outcomes

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Epidemiology

• The study of the distribution and determinants of
  disease in populations
• Distribution examine patterns of disease
  occurrence
• Determinants factors that contribute to or
  influence the occurrence of disease
• Involves knowledge of biology, statistics,
  geography, sociology, genetics, and many other
  topics

The Ebola virus
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
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Health Management and Policy

• Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of
  managerial programs
• Apply principles of strategic planning, and
  marketing in public health
• Manage information systems for the collection,
  retrieval and appropriate analysis of data for
  decision-making
• Develop plans to implement and evaluate policies,
  including goals, outcomes, process objectives and
  implementation steps

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Social andBehavioral Sciences

• Develop and evaluate interventions (health
  promotion and disease prevention) to improve
  public health
• Focuses on health-related social and behavioral
  change at the individual, family, community and
  social policy levels
• Health communication and marketing

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Application Procedure

• To be considered for admission, applicants must
• File the following official credentials with the
  SPH
• Office of Student Academic Services
• Completed online application to the School of
  Public Health, http//my.hsc.unt.edu/
• Application fee 40.00
• A written statement of professional goals
  referencing the concentration applying to
• A current curriculum vita or resume
• Three letters of recommendation
• Applicants for the DO/MPH dual degree program may
  substitute the MCAT for the GRE
• Applicants should submit a letter to UNTHSC
  registrars office requesting copies of all
  transcripts and MCAT scores to be submitted to
  the
• SPH Office of Student Academic Services ,
  EAD-716

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DO/MPH Curriculum

• Core Courses for Masters in Public Health (15
  SCH) Hours
• EPID 5100 Principles of Epidemiology 3
• BIOS 5210 Biostatistics for Public Health I 3
• SCBS 5110 Behavioral and Social Aspects of
  Public Health 3
• HMAP 5210 Introduction to Health Management and
  Policy 3
• ENVR 5300 Environmental Health 3
• Department Courses (12 SCH)
• Required Courses 6-12 SCH
• Selective Courses 0-6 SCH
• Practice Experience (3 SCH)
• SPH 5850 Public Health Practice Experience 3
• To be completed during the medical student
  rotations student must be placed in a public
• health setting that is jointly determined by
  TCOM and the SPH Public Health Practice
  Coordinator
• Culminating Experience (6 SCH)
• SCBS/HMAP 5800 Capstone 3
• SPH 5900 Professional Report 3
• or
• SPH 5950 Thesis 6
• Departments may require students to complete a
  comprehensive exam instead of the thesis so the
  student can enroll in 2 additional 3 SCH courses
  to meet the didactic requirements for a
  particular concentration.

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DO/MPH Curriculum

• Students can complete the dual degree program in
  5 years. Students will take a year off after
  their 3rd or 4th year of medical school to
  complete all necessary MPH courses.
• TCOM students may apply to the dual degree
  program prior to matriculation to medical school
  through the completion of their 3rd year of
  medical school. Students who have started their
  4th year of medical school will not be allowed to
  apply to the DO/MPH program.
• TCOM administrators will adjust the rotations for
  3rd and 4th year DO/MPH students so they can take
  SPH coursework while completing medical school
  rotations.
• An academic advising committee has been formed to
  monitor the progress of DO/MPH students and to
  help facilitate the successful completion of both
  degrees.
• Students who select the Thesis or Professional
  Report option will be required to have a DO on
  their committee. The DO committee member will be
  selected by the student with approval from the
  major professor.

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QUESTIONS?
Elizabeth (Liz) Medders Coordinator of
Recruitment Retention Office of Student
Academic Services School of Public
Health Education Administration Building 7th
Floor Suite 716 817-735-2401 emedders_at_hsc.unt.ed
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