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Abstract #155603

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Sondos Islam, PhD and Gilbert Ramirez, DrPH. Urban Public Health, Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science, 1731 East 120th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90059, 323-563-5881, sislam@cdrewu.edu

Minimum educational competencies for MPH degree programs have been developed and these competencies will also serve as a foundation for the development of national public health credentialing. The competencies are framed as twelve domains of which several, e.g., biostatistics and epidemiology, have historically been the hallmark of MPH curricula, while others are new, e.g., leadership, professionalism, systems thinking, etc. The re-engineering of MPH curricula will be a major challenge given the projected July 2008 date for the initial administration of the national exam. This challenge is a unique opportunity for relatively new MPH degree programs and programs in the development phase to demonstrate innovation in the transformation of graduate public health education. The MPH Program in Urban Public Health at The Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science has modeled its new curriculum ensuring all of the ASPH MPH competencies have been integrated into one or more required courses. The curriculum is offered as a sequenced-learning model that prepares graduates for evidence- and practice-based careers in urban public health. It includes innovative approaches such as the offering of an Evidence-based Population Health Decision Methods two-semester series of courses that replaces the traditional biostatistics, epidemiology, and program planning courses by integrating specific competencies within each of the disciplines.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe a method for teaching biostatistics, epidemiology, and program planning as an integrated series of evidence-based population health decision methods course series.
• Discuss merits of competency-based versus tradtional public health academic silo curricula.

Keywords: Evidence Based Practice, Accreditation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

• Slides (pdf) or Handout