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Credits:
This seminar-style course is designed to encourage both HPM Masters and Doctoral students to test the competencies they have acquired in ‘real life’ situations. Students will go through a series of health policy vignettes selected to be current, relevant, and controversial. Students will review the issues as presented in various media sources, including the offered ‘expert’ commentary, examine relevant political calculations, and articulate the key public health principals at stake. They will then review relevant scientific, medical and public health literature(s) and apply the understanding from peer-reviewed literature to the problem at hand. Students will present their reviews and facilitate discussions focusing on determining whether and how public discussion and policy decisions reflect scientific knowledge and application of scientific principles to the issue(s). Students will then evaluate the extent to which societal discussion and policy decisions may be impacted by the political, social, philosophical, religious, economic and personal perspectives of various stakeholders. Specifically, students will articulate and analyze the problem and the advocated or applied solution(s), delineate the key public health issues at stake, assess where, when and why outcomes have been (or are likely to be) suboptimal and suggest how the application of rigorous analyses might lead to improved interventions and outcomes.
Prerequisites: