Harvard School of Public Health
The Harvard School of Public Health (colloquially, HSPH) is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill, which is next to Harvard Medical School. HSPH is considered a significant school focusing on health in the United States. It is the country's third-oldest school of public health. Founded in 1922, the Harvard School of Public Health grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first graduate training program in population health. Julio Frenk, the Minister of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006 and a former executive director of the World Health Organization (WHO), became the new dean of HSPH in January 2009.[1]
As one of the most selective public health schools in the world, the middle 50 percent of the class that entered in 2006 had an incoming GPA between 3.50 and 3.75 (out of 4.0). About half of HSPH students already hold an MD degree, with many of the rest holding another advanced degree (typically a PhD, JD, or MBA). HSPH students are drawn from around the world, with about 40 percent of the student body coming from outside of the United States.
Overall, HSPH is ranked third after the University of North Carolina School of Public Health in the 2011, U.S. News & World Report.[2] The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health was ranked first in the same report. U.S. News consistently ranks Harvard #1 in Health Policy and Management.[3]
The School's objectives are to provide the highest level of education to health scientists, practitioners, and leaders, to foster new discoveries leading to improved health for the people of this country and all nations, and to strengthen health capacities and services for communities.[4]
History
The School's predecessor was the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, founded in 1913; Harvard calls it "the nation's first graduate training program in public health." In 1922, the School for Health Officers became the Harvard School of Public Health, and in 1946 it was split off from the medical school and became a separate faculty of Harvard University.[5]
Curriculum
The Master's in Public Health Program - MPH offers seven degree concentrations:
- Clinical Effectiveness (CLE)
- Family and Community Health (FCH)
- Health Care Management and Policy (CMP)
- Global Health (GH)
- Law and Public Health (LPH)
- Occupational and Environmental Health (OEH)
- Quantitative Methods (QM) [6]
Degree programs offered by specific departments:
- Biostatistics: ScM, PhD
- Environmental Health: ScM, PhD, ScD, MOH, DPH
- Epidemiology: ScM, ScD, DPH
- Genetics and Complex Diseases: PhD
- Health Policy and Management: ScM, ScD, PhD
- Immunology and Infectious Diseases: ScD, PhD
- Nutrition: ScD, DPH, PhD
- Global Health:
-
- Health Economics (ScD)
- Health Systems (ScD)
- Population and Reproductive Health (ScD)
- Society, Human Development, and Health: ScM, ScD, DPH
PhD programs are offered under the aegis of the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Research Projects
- The Nurses Health Study and Nurses Health Study II, which have followed the health of over 100,000 nurses from 1976 to the present; its results have been used in hundreds of published papers.[7]
- The Health Professionals Followup Study, a similar study of over fifty thousand male health professionals seeking to connect diet, exercise, smoking, and medications taken to frequency of cancer and cardiovascular disease.[8]
- The International Health Systems Program, which has provided training or technical assistance to projects in 21 countries, and conducts health policy research[9]
- The Program in Health Care Financing, which studies the economics of national health care programs; evaluates the health care programs of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other countries; studies the effects of bringing HMO-like hospital reimbursement practices to developing countries; and applies hedonimetrics to health care.[10]
- The Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR), which studies public health and humanitarian law and policy in the context of conflict-torn regions like the Gaza Strip and transnational issues like terrorism.[11]
- The Lung Cancer S.O.S. study, examining the risk factors for and prognosis of lung cancer in terms of genetics and environment.[12]
- The College Alcohol Study, which examines the causes of college binge drinking and approaches to prevention and harm reduction.[13]
- The Program on the Global Demography of Aging, which studies policy issues related to economics of aging with a focus on the developing world.[14]
- The Superfund Basic Research Program (see Superfund), studying toxic waste management.[15]
Notable Faculty (and past faculty)
- Alberto Ascherio, neuroepidemiologist
- Katherine Baicker, economist, a former member of the Council of Economic Advisers
- Robert Blendon, political strategy of health and public opinion expert
- David Bloom, economist
- David Canning, economist
- Arnold Epstein, department chair for health policy and management
- Max Essex, HIV researcher
- Julio Frenk, dean of school of public health and former Secretary of Health of Mexico
- Atul Gawande, general and endocrine surgeon
- Sue Goldie, physician and decision scientist, Macarthur fellowship recipient
- John Graham, policy and decision scientist, former director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
- Laurie Glimcher, immunologist
- Alice Hamilton, occupational health and toxicology; first woman appointed to the faculty of Harvard University[16]
- William Hsiao, economist
- Howard Koh, public health researcher, the 14th Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
- Alexander H. Leighton, psychiatric epidemiologist
- Bernard Lown, co-founded the Nobel Prize-winning group Physicians for Social Responsibility; founder of the Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation [17]
- Adetokumbo Lucas, former director of Tropical Diseases Research at the World Health Organization (WHO)
- Brian MacMahon, cancer epidemiologist
- Sezan Mahmud, Writer and university professor
- Christopher Murray, physician and health economist
- Joseph Newhouse, economist and director of the RAND Health Insurance Experiment
- James Robins, epidemiologist and biostatistician
- Amartya Sen, economist, Nobel laureate in Economics
- Andrew Spielman, public health entomologist
- Thomas Weller, Nobel laureate in Physiology and Medicine
- James Whittenberger, Department of Physiology
- Walter Willett, physician and nutrition researcher
- David Hemenway, economist and injury prevention expert
Notable alumni
- Anthony Irvine Adams, 2001 Alumni Award of Merit for a distinguished service in public health practice
- Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, former Director-General of the World Health Organization
- David J. Sencer, longest-serving Director of the CDC
- James O. Mason, former Acting Surgeon-General of the USA, former Director of the CDC
- James B. Aguayo-Martel, pioneer in ophthalmology
- Eli Capilouto, provost of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and incoming president of the University of Kentucky
- Humayun Chaudhry, president and CEO, Federation of State Medical Boards
- William Foege, MPH 1965, physician, former director of the Centers for Disease Control[18]
- Atul Gawande, surgical safety pioneer, MacArthur Fellow, Rhodes Scholar
- Timothy Johnson, chief medical correspondent for ABC News
- Karl Lauterbach, German Politician (SPD)
- Jonathan Fielding, Director Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, editor Annual Review of Public Health
- Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih, Minister of Health of Republic of Indonesia [5]]
References
- ^ Julio Frenk Named Next Dean of Harvard School of Public Health
- ^ Ranking of Best schools of Public Health in US by U.S. News & World Report.
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ HSPH Catalog - Harvard School of Public Health
- ^ MPH Program - Harvard School of Public Health
- ^ NHS :: The Nurses’ Health Study » Front
- ^ HPFS - About Us
- ^ International Health Systems Program at Harvard
- ^ Program in Health Care Financing - Harvard School of Public Health
- ^ Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR)
- ^ http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/lungcancer/
- ^ College Alcohol Study
- ^ Global Demography of Aging
- ^ The Superfund Basis Research Program at Harvard University
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]
- ^ Bloom, Barry R. (Winter 2007). "Dean's message: Leaders worth following". Harvard Public Health Review. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/review/winter07/dean1.html. Retrieved 30 September 2009.
External links
Centers and Institutes