Changing Graduate Public Health Education

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.