Exploring Population Health
Public health is what we do together as a society to ensure the conditions in which everyone can be healthy. The Exploring Population Health course provides students an opportunity to learn about both historical and contemporary public health issues, their effects on population health, and how public health systems are working to solve the health issues affecting our communities today. Travel is required for this course. Students tour historically significant sites, visit communities and community-based organizations, attend featured presentations around both contemporary and historical public health issues, as well as visit local and federal public health agencies to learn about their structure, programs, service delivery models, and approaches to addressing issues of public health. The sum of this experience illustrates the interdisciplinary nature of public health practice and the need to add attention to the social determinants of health – the conditions in the social, physical, and economic environment in which people are born, live, work and age – in order to achieve health equity.
