Hoos’ List

Special Topics courses in Health Humanities and Ethics.

This seminar uses Hepatitis C to explore the promises and pitfalls of the U.S. healthcare system. Once the deadliest infectious disease in America, Hepatitis C now has a highly effective cure---yet millions remain untreated. Why? Through science, policy, and ethics, we'll examine barriers such as drug pricing, insurance, stigma, and social determinants of health, and develop creative, interdisciplinary solutions. No science background required.

Students spend time in medical settings as "participant-observers," in order to gain first-hand experience of subject matter that is the focus of the theory, teaching, & practice of bioethics. Direct exposure to patients, health care settings, & health professionals should allow students to see, what sorts of ethical issues are characteristic of the culture. Shows what role a bioethicist might play in clinical setting. Instructor permission.

Graduate level course designed to allow transfer credit from other higher education institutions. This course requires PHS Steering Committee Approval for registration.

Designed to introduce undergrads to a graduate level coursework. This course advances methodological and cultural competency in the design and implementation of community health qualitative research investigations. Coursework provides opportunities to practice specific methodologies such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, case studies, and historiographies in accordance with standards of rigor (e.g., reliability, generalizability, validity). Prerequisites: Instructor Permission.

Focus on interconnections between human health and the environment impacting individuals, communities and populations. Including ecological perspectives highlighting human health, animal health and ecosystem health. Use analytic frameworks to identify, evaluate and address environmental health concerns. Gain real world experience through field trips and interactions with environmental health professionals.

Seminar to introduce undergraduates to graduate level work. Examines the evolution of the U.S. health care system from a health policy and health values perspective, with an emphasis on the current health system. Topics include issues surrounding the financing, organization, and delivery of health care, including acess, coverage, cost, and quality of health services. Prerequisite: Instructor Permission

This course is designed to facilitate the development of interdisciplinary student research in a global context. Seminars are designed to support rigorous project development and respectful interactions. The projects addressed in this course are eligible to apply for funding from the Center for Global Health, the Community Based Undergraduate Research Grant, Jefferson Public Citizens Award and other sources.

The Movement for Change & Social Justice (MCSJ) has emerged from decades of acivism on the HIV/AIDS pandemic in S. Africa. This course will integrate students with MCSJ activists as they address emerging public health challenges for township residents. Students will learn historical & social context for public health advocacy in S. African townships, key case studies of social activism related to public health, & skills req for effective work.

Students will explore concepts and principles of equity in health through the lens of addressing disparities in health and its determinants. Students will learn the extent and persistence of disparities in health across a range of medical conditions, and will discuss social determinants of health (and health disparities) in five key areas: econ. stability, educ., neighborhood & built environment, social and community context, health & health care.

Special Topics courses in Public Health Sciences. Prerequisites: Instructor Permission

This course provides the opportunity to offer new topics in the subject of Public Health Sciences. Prerequisite: Instructor Permission

The planning & design of the built environment to promote public health & equity requires systems thinking & a trandisciplinary approach to research. Students will learn & apply collaborative research methods including scientific health literature review, diagramming concepts, & case study analysis to synthesize logic models as theoretical frameworks for projects & policy. This graduate level course will have additional course requirements.

Students learn the procedures, methods, and tools associated with Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and systematically judge the potential and unintended effects of a policy, plan, program, or project concerning the built environment of a community. Students will propose, develop & execute a rapid form of HIA. Assignments will reflect typical HIA tasks culminating in a final report as a deliverable to community stakeholders. Prerequisite: Instructor Permission

The course will cover human genetics and genomics, including the human/mammalian genome variation, determination of genomic variation on phenotype and disease risk, mapping and characterizing genetic variants on phenotype, determining the putative impact of genetic variants on gene expression (transcriptomics, epigenomics), the promise and implications of genome science on precision medicine and the ethical, legal & social implications. Prerequisites: BIOL 3010 or BIOL 4210 or instructor consent.

Virtual course: Students complete Part 1 (fall) & Part 2 (spring). Recommended for those interested in public health, medicine, U.S. & Rwandan health systems, or studying/working in Africa. UVA & Rwandan students partner to explore shared public health topics & complete a year-long literature review while building skills in comparative analysis, cross-cultural collaboration, & project management.

This course introduces students to some of the critical South African historical and cultural contexts they will need to understand before engaging effectively in the summer program in Cape Town on community organizing and public health advocacy. Students will also be introduced to isiXhosa, the local language spoken by health activists and community members they will engage with in South Africa.

This course is the graduate level offering of PHS 3825. Through interactive lectures & small group activities, we learn about important advances in global health, factors that determine health, current threats, & effective ways to implement change. In addition, as a graduate student, you will have numerous opportunities to demonstrate attainment of MPH foundational knowledge & competencies.

Supervised Independent Research

This course provides the opportunity to offer new topics in the subject of Public Health Science.

Covers the fundamentals in medical statistics including descriptive statistics, estimation, hypothesis testing, precision, sample size, correlation, problems with categorization of continuous variables, multiple comparison problems, and interpreting of statistical results. Covers the basics of statistical software programming so that students can create, run, and debug programs. Prerequisites:  Graduate in PHS programs or instructor permission.

An illustration of the indications, limitations, assumptions, and appropriate applications of analytical methods in a variety of biomedical settings. Students will learn how to determine which analytic technique would be best suited for a variety of translational and clinical research, evaluation, and policy study designs. Prerequisite: Instructor permission;: PHS 7000.

Introduces the field of Epidemiology and the methods of epidemiologic research. Students learn how to interpret, critique, and conduct epidemiologic research, including formulating a research question, choosing a study design, collecting and analyzing data, controlling bias and confounding, and interpreting study results. May be open to undergraduates as PHS 5010 with instructor permission. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the PHS program or instructor permission.

This course enriches and extends the fundamental principles of epidemiology introduced in PHS 7010. Students learn the assumptions necessary for causal inference and how to comprehensively consider multiple sources of bias using causal diagrams. These topics are covered in the context of randomized clinical trails, cohort studies, and case control studies with training in the analysis of data with binary, continuous, and time-to-event outcomes. Prerequisite PHS 7010

This course advances methodological and cultural competency in the design and implementation of community health qualitative research investigations. Coursework provides opportunities to practice specific methodologies such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, case studies, and historiographies in accordance with standards of rigor (e.g., reliability, generalizability, validity).

We will draw on approaches from public health, medical informatics, and human factors engineering to answer these questions. We will explore how to create interventions that are grounded in theoretical perspectives and field-based assessments of patients needs and preferences. Our ultimate goal will be to create interventions that are useful and usable by patients and that ultimately support self-management and improve health outcomes.

This course lays the foundation of epidemiological and translational research. Focus is on core epidemiologic research methodology fundamental to biomed discovery process that integrates bench, bedside, and community partners in advancing PH. Topics include study design (clin trials & observational studies), epidemiologic data analysis, statistical and causal inference, and scientific validity. Entrepreneurship, legal & ethic issues in context. Prerequisites: PHS 7010 & Instructor Permission.

Required fall course for Community & Public Health track. Explores the legitimacy, design, and implementation of a variety of policies aiming to promote public health and reduce the social burden of disease and injury. Highlights the challenge posed by public health's population-based perspective to traditional individual-centered, autonomy-driven approaches to bioethics and constitutional law. Other themes center on conflicts between public health and public morality and the relationship between public health and social justice. Illustrative topics include mandatory immunization, screening and reporting of infectious diseases, prevention of lead poisoning, food safety, prevention of firearm injuries, airbags and seat belts, mandatory drug testing, syringe exchange programs, tobacco regulation, and restrictions on alcohol and tobacco advertising. May be open to undergraduates as PHS 5050 with instructor permission. Prerequisites:  Instructor permission.

Provides students with the opportunity to engage in the policy development & advocacy process. This includes defining & analyzing a policy issue, synthesizing info & data from numerous sources to generate policy options, examining the legal, ethical & other implications of potential policy options, understanding the preferences & perspectives of key stakeholders, & clearly communicating & advocating for policy options with different audiences.

This course is designed to provide a survey of the spectrum of topics generally considered part of "health law". It will introduce the various institutions and players involved in health care delivery and the legal relationships between those institutions at both the sate and federal level..

Provides an introduction to Program Planning through the lens of Program Evaluation. Covers the design of population-based programs, methods to evaluate public health programs, the importance of community, & other topics necessary to successfully implement public health programs. Students will design a program & program evaluation using stakeholder input, the academic literature, & trusted authoritative sources. Instructor permission required.

Reviews principles of economics most relevant to analyzing changes in health care provision and applies those principles to current health care institutions and their performance, trends in health care service delivery, and methods of forecasting future trends. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the PHS program or instructor permission.

An introduction to the terminology, structure, & function of the U.S. health care system with an emphasis on the social, economic, & political forces that impact the organization, financing, & delivery of health & health care.

This course is an exposure to the concepts, methods and problem areas addressed by health services research as a field of inquiry. The focus of the course will be on the development and critique of a healthcare policy paper. This course will involve discussion of the concepts, methods and problem areas addressed by health services research and develop a toolkit for healthcare policy analysis.

Covers the theory and practice of survey research. Topics include surveys as a scientific method; sampling theory; the construction, testing, and improvement of survey instruments; interviewer training; the organization of field work; coding and data quality control; data analysis; and the preparation of survey reports. Cross-listed as SOC 5110. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the PHS program or instructor permission.

Introduces students to the techniques needed for the evaluation of health outcomes from the perspectives of the patient, the physician, the health care provider, and society. Presents measurement and evaluation of survival, functional status, quality of life, and health values. Evaluates the efficacy, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of devices, interventions, and processes of care. Prerequisite: PHS 7000 and 7001 or instructor permission.

Explores the use of data in population health sciences incorporating cases from public health & health care practice. Covers the basics of loading data into SAS, manipulating variables, & generating output in a PC environment. Students will learn how to detect, diagnose, & correct mistakes. The course draws upon & integrates Biostatistics & Epidemiology. Prerequisite: Instructor Permission

This course addresses cross-cutting public health competencies in Communication, Professionalism, and Diversity and Culture, and includes sessions with public health officials in practice. The course also will focus on effective written and oral communication.

Focus on leadership principles, adaptive leadership tools, enhanced communication strategies, multi-sector collaboration, facilitation, and negotiation. Develop skills through case-based leadership experiences and self-assessment tools. Training in communication science to inform, persuade, and counter misinformation in an entrepreneurial leadership approach that includes resilience, innovation, community engagement, and systems strengthening.

Examines the U.S. health care system from health policy, health systems, and health administration perspectives, with an emphasis on current challenges facing the financing, administration, and delivery of health services. Using a case-based method, the course will employ lecture, discussion, and student-led group projects that encourage analysis of real-world scenarios in today's complex health and medical environments. May be open to undergraduates as PHS 5200 with instructor permission. Prerequisite: PHS 7090 and PHS 7100, or acceptable substitute in health policy, economics, or financing; or instructor permission.

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the major players in the health care industry & the financial issues these players raise for HealthCare managers. Understand the function of financial management in HealthCare Organizations. Asses a HealthCare organization's financial condition & forecast its financial future. Understand "third party payer system", incentives created by different payment methods & their effect on provider risk.

Emphasis on hands-on experiences, equips students with key applied economic concepts & econometrics tools to empirically analyze observational health outcome & behavioral data to formulate/evaluate health policies and/or strategic plans for health-related orgs. Will use multiple regression methods to analyze cross-sectional & panel data & learn ways to address real world data noises to provide causal interpretation.

This course is designed to expose students to community-based factors that influence the health of populations and individuals. The principal objective of the class is to provide the rationale for meaningful engagement of diverse communities and introduce effective strategies that will enhance research and policy protocols designed to improve health status.

The Applied Practice is a planned, supervised & evaluated work experience with an organization that contributes to the health of a community. Students apply skills learned in the program to a real-world setting & work toward achieving competencies. Placements are selected based on the interests & needs of the student. A min of 2 deliverables are required; placements may occur during an academic year, one semester or over summer.

Students will gain knowledge of effective peer health promotion strategies to prevent hazing and substance misuse among emerging adults and develop their communication, facilitation and presentation skills.

This course will examine the philosophy, rationale, & guidelines for developing health promotion programs in a worksite setting. The educational organizational, social & environment supports for behaviors conducive to positive health outcomes & improved work performance will be examined. Strategies that impact employee health along with theories of behavior change & human motivation will be discussed.

Covers the design and analysis of Phase I-III clinical trials. Topics include choice of study population and endpoints, choice of study design and sample size estimation, randomization and masking, patient recruitment, data collection and quality control, data monitoring committees, data analysis, and the interpretation and reporting of results. Prerequisite: Instructor permission; PHS 7000 or equivalent.

Explores racial, ethnic, geographic & other health inequities in their socio-cultural, political-economic & historic contexts. Among the topics covered will be descriptions of disparities, socioeconomic & political determinants of health inequities & the impact of bias & prejudice on the health & well-being of marginalized communities. Centers around a population health perspective although readings will be interdisciplinary.

This course will train participants to utilize Lean methodologies and tools that can help improve throughput and other performance measures in a healthcare setting. Lean is a leading process improvement methodology used to achieve significant improvements in quality, service, productivity, and customer satisfaction. It uses a variety of statistical tools and other skills, integrated with a standardized methodology, to measure, and analyze.

This course offers an intro to environmental health with a focus on environmental epidemiology. Through case studies on air, soil and water pollutants, students will examine concepts of study design, exposure assessment and issues of validity. Provides hands-on introduction to GIS. At course completion, students will be prepared to critically review published literature and assist in the design and conduct of environmental health research.

In this course students will utilize data science principles and skills to access, evaluate, and interpret public health data from large databases and draw inferences. Students will develop skills to formulate and answer research questions related to clinical research and health policy. The course will also explore how the publci health infrastructure collects, processes, maintains, and disseminates data.

Focuses on health policy analysis using secondary data. The course applies skills learned in biostatistics & epidemiology courses in order to conduct secondary data analyses. In particular, students will explore how public health infrastructure collects, processes, maintains, & disseminates data by learning about & accessing large datasets such as BRFSS and NHANES.

Public health & clinical data is utilized in myriad ways, from pop mngt to patient care, in support of quality improvement, biomedical investigation, medical educ. & much more. Covers topics in biomedical inform, electronic med records, clinical decision support, standards & interperability, org behavior, human factors, consumer informatics and more. Covers basics of relational databases & structured query language (SQL), provides hands-on exp.

Provides students with a comprehensive overview and in-depth review of the theories, major components and techniques for the management of health care organizations. Topics covered include organizational management, financial analyses, budgeting for operations and grants, principles and techniques for managing and leading effective teams, systems thinking concepts and methods and theories and methods for managing a quality organization.

Examination of topical issues and current problems and research in various areas of public health. Prerequisite:  Instructor permission.

This course provides the opportunity to offer new topics in the subject of Public Health Science. Prerequisite: Instructor Permission

Public Health is a multi-disciplinary field that attempts to help individuals and communities prevent illness and maintain and improve health. These health promotion activities are accomplished through the development of programs and policies and associated study of these activities. Although we recognize that there are many factors that impact individuals and population health outcomes, this course will explore the social and behavioral aspects of health as well as the relationship between health behavior and community, society and the environment. Prerequisite: Instructor permission.

This course focuses on health promotion & disease prevention across the lifespan to improve population health & well-being. Students will learn foundations of health promotion & will integrate methods of epidemiological & evaluation methods to plan & assess effective interventions. They will explore innovative approaches, strategies, & practices across systems to reduce health disparities, address determinants of health, & engage communities & stakeholders in creating environments for healthy living & wellness

Explores methodological, ethical & regulatory issues in research involving human subjects. Responsible conduct of research, clinical research, historical & philisophical framework of research ethics, the role of IRB, informed consent, assessing risks & benefits, research involving vulnerable populations, protecting participant safety & privacy, comm. based research, FDA research, & research involving biological specimens. Prerequisite: Instructor Permission

This course teaches students how to interpret qualitative data by applying systematic coding processes. Analyzing qualitative data involves reading through the interview or focus group transcripts and other data, developing codes, applying and revising those codes through an iterative review of data, and drawing connections between discrete pieces of data to determine research participant meaning. Prerequisite: PHS 8120, GNUR 8120, PHS 7015

Practicum associated with Methods Course for Research in Practice Concentration. Prerequisite: Instructor Permission

Practicum associated with Methods Course for Health Policy, Law & Ethics Concentration. Prerequisite: Instructor Permission

The Applied Practice is a planned, supervised & evaluated work experience with an organization that contributes to the health of a community. Students apply skills learned in the program to a real-world setting & work toward achieving competencies. Placements are selected based on the interests & needs of the student. A min of 100 hours is required; placements may occur during an academic year, one semester or over summer.

The Applied Practice is a planned, supervised & evaluated work experience with an organization that contributes to the health of a community. Students apply skills learned in the program to a real-world setting & work toward achieving competencies. Placements are selected based on the interests & needs of the student. A min of 50 hours is required; placements may occur during an academic year, one semester or over summer.

The Applied Practice is a planned, supervised & evaluated work experience with an organization that contributes to the health of a community. Students apply skills learned in the program to a real-world setting & work toward achieving competencies. Placements are selected based on the interests & needs of the student. A min of 50 hours is required; placements may occur during an academic year, one semester or over summer.

The culminating experience project should demonstrate application of knowledge acquired in the MPH program to a real-world public health issue. Students write a paper & create a poster for presentation describing their projects. Students also take a review test of basic material from the core public health disciplines & complete a competency self-assessment to obtain feedback on their progress & accomplishments achieved by the end of the program. Prerequisite: Instructor Permission.

The final project should demonstrate application of knowledge acquired in the MPH program to a real-world public health issue. Students write a paper & create a poster for presentation describing their projects. Students also take a review test of basic material from the core public health disciplines & complete a competency self-assesment to obtain feedback on their progress & accomplishments achieved by the end of the program.

Supervised Clinical Research

Introduce students to R, an open-source software environment for statistical computing & graphics & RStudio. Students will learn essential R concepts, how to access various R packages, & how to do data analysis & graphics in the R environment Prereqs: PHS 7000, PHS 7170.

Supervised Independent Research

Non-Topical Research