About the School of Public Health

Overview of the MPH Program
Tracks - Thesis/Project
The School's Divisions

Whereas in the past "health" was related to in terms of biological and medical factors only, nowadays it is clear that the term "health" has more to it then just the medical and biological aspect.
There are other factors that influence the individual's and populations' state of health: behavioral, social, environmental, biological, genetic, organizational, political, and economic factors.

Thus, health promotion for a population should not only consist of medical diagnosis and treatment, but should also encourage an environment and society that are supportive of a healthy lifestyle.

Today an interdisciplinary framework is needed to train professionals that are capable of coping with the diversity and scope of existing information and with systems evolving in a multiplicity of theory, practice, and content. The School of Public Health aims to respond to this need.
Our main goal is to encourage positive changes in the health of populations in Israel and abroad.

Overview of the MPH Programs and Divisions

The school of Public Health's graduate program embodies a multi-disciplinarian approach combining research and education.

The school offers a Master's degree in Public Health with four departmental areas of interests: students may specialize in Epidemiology, Health Promotion, Community and Environmental Health and Health Administration, Applied Nutrition (MAN)
 

The program consists of the following parts:

 Compulsory courses for all students at the School of Public Health. (Core courses)

Compulsory courses for the four different divisions

General elective courses.

Elective division courses that are open to all students at the school. 


The MPH program has two tracks

1. Thesis track - writing a research thesis :

Total of 18 semester courses of 2 hours a week each (36 semester hours), including two written seminar papers.

Compulsory core courses for the whole school consist of 14 semester hours out of 36hrs.

Compulsory courses for each division: 8 semester hours; out of the 36 hours.

Exception:  in health administration division, there is requirement to take 20 semester hours.

Elective courses: 14 semester hours; except for the health administration division: 2 semester hours.

Students wishing to take electives not offered in the framework of the school may select such courses in consultation with their academic adviser and with the approval of the head of the program.

A research project with a written thesis.

Program duration: two years, with possible extension but not to exceed three years.

2. Non-thesis track-writing a final seminar paper:

   Total of 22 semester courses, of 2 hours a week each (44 semester hours), including three written seminar papers.

  Compulsory courses for the whole school: 14 semester hours.

  Compulsory courses for each division: 8 weekly semester hours; except for the health systems management division: 22 semester hours.

  Elective for each concentration: 22 semester hours; except for health systems management track: 12 weekly semester hours.

  A final seminar paper.

  Duration of program: two years

Throughout the degree, the courses will be given in two weekdays. (Thursday and Friday/Wednesday).  The flexible schedule enables students to keep their jobs while studying for the MPH.
 

Student will have to attend a Monthly forum for Public Health School students. There will be 3 meetings throughout the semester. Each student have to attend an acquaintance meeting in the library during the first semester.

The school of Public Health may ask a student to present his/her thesis in the school's forum.

The school divisions

Epidemiology
Head of Epidemiology department: Dr. Avshalom Strulov
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Epidemiology is a fundamental science in public health concerned with the evaluation and research of a population's health status. It combines both scientific and therapeutic elements.

The program trains professionals and academics in the field, and imparts information, methods and epidemiological tools to students in this course and in the other departments too.
The target of this track is to enable the students to utilize Epidemiological terms and methods, to teach them the ABC of Epidemiological research - how to read Epidemiological articles and also how to recognize and avoid research that is done poorly. Moreover, the principles of critical reading of articles will be conveyed.

Epidemiology studies focuses on supplying students with tools and the ability to comprehend clinical epidemiology, biostatistics, and evidence-based decision-making (EBM) in health subjects.
Nowadays when Computerized Information Systems are commonly used, our school also offers courses to learn how to utilize information bases, and how to data-mine.

Thus, the competencies gained from this track will further research developments in: Identification of the characteristics of health and illness in sub-populations, epidemics, causes of morbidity, precision systems of diagnosis and research validity, survey and disease prevention, outbreaks, malignant diseases, occupational and environmental health.

The student will be able to carry out research: either Thesis or a project in his/her specific field of interest.

Health Promotion
Head of Health Promotion department: Dr. Orna Baron Epel

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Health promotion is a process enabling people to increase their control over their health status and to improve it.
Health promotion consists of five areas of activity: establishing a public health policy, creating supportive environments, developing personal skills, strengthening community action, and reorienting health services. As such, this program stresses the combination of social, cultural, behavioral, environmental, economic, and political aspects of health.

The Health Promotion track provides students with competencies in the following areas:
  Use of various strategies to promote health. (mass media, education, resources allocation, etc)
  Creating effective partnerships between bodies promoting health.
  Empowering the individual and community, use of the media to transmit health messages.
  Evaluating health promotion programs.
  Solving local health problems by an ecological healthy attitude.

The research focuses on the development of information in this context, and concentrates on the following directions: Understanding processes that determine community health; Understanding processes that determine health behavior on the individual and community levels; Developing models and methodologies for planning interventions in the community and in organizations; Developing methods of evaluating interventions at the individual and community levels; Examining the cost-effectiveness of various interventions to identify preferred models.
The students will be able to carry out research: either Thesis or a project in his/her specific field of interest. 

Comunity and Enviromental Health

Head of Community and Environmental health department : Prof. Shmuel Rishpon
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Community health combines health promotion, community's health status diagnosis, development of health policy, implementation of health policies, research and development of preventive health services, and environmental health.

In essence, public health activity is based on the knowledge of health sciences, epidemiology, environmental health, anthropology, sociology, management, and organization.

Today, many aspects of quality of life are influenced by environmental factors. For instance: contagious diseases and viruses, pollution of the air, soil and water, ionizing radiation, and other hazards can cause mass morbidities and so effect community health.
This underlines the primary role of the fields of health promotion and public health. Therefore, there is a demand for capable professionals who can deal with both individual, and environmental health, in order to prevent cummulative damage. This concentration is aimed at training professionals working in community and environmental health in the public health system, health maintenance organizations, and other health systems.

The community and environmental health track provides students with an understanding of Community health; Environmental health; the health of special populations and minorities: ethnic groups, immigrants, foreign workers, the elderly, the handicapped, mother and child health etc.
Research in this field aims to develop better knowledge about:
Effectiveness and accessibility of public health systems, HMO's, risk factors in the community, increasing community awareness to health topics and updates, awareness to local health hazards, health services for special populations, access of the community to health information, activities for disease prevention, and health promotion and community development.


Health Administration
Head of Health Administration department: Dr. Yitzhak Zaidese
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The health system is one of the largest and most complex systems in the modern state. Health Maintenance Organizations and hospitals administer large budgets and substantial personnel - (growing) expenditures, increasing in-depth knowledge and constant improvement of medical technological ability, decentralization, and controlled competition.

More than ever, there is a demand of better health administrators, since there is an increased demand for health, but at the same time, the state can not financially support the publics' medical demands. This is a challenge, because even though resources allocated to health are increasing, there are still not enough resources to cover the increasing expenses.

These issues necessitate training management personnel with a broad range of knowledge in the medical, health, legal, management, and economic fields.

This concentration in the School of Public Health consists of managers and administrators coming from various medical and paramedical backgrounds (physicians, nurses etc.) who would like to specialize in health administration. Additionally, this concentration may fit researchers from the social sciences, that would like to learn more about policy making, organization and management of the Israeli health system and it's institutes.

The curriculum in this track focuses on training professional health administrators in the following areas: organizational behavior, economic aspects of health organizations, legal and ethical aspects, health policy and its implementation in Israel and around the world, information systems and their application in health, management, and economic fields.
The research focus and the development of knowledge in this context sheds light on: health policy and its implementation in Israel; the structure and functioning of the Israeli health system; and the application of health policy to sub-populations

 Applied Nutrition (MAN)

A balanced diet that is suited to nutritional demands together with healthy eating behavior are of great importance in the prevention and treatment of various illnesses, especially chronic diseases that are common in our society. Dietary interventions can be considerably enhanced by taking into account the individual's behavior, personality, social and family contexts, thus creating a supportive and motivational system.
The novelty of the degree program offered is the special attention given to the behavioral aspect of the diet when treating nutritional disorders, and the role that it plays in etiology and prevention. It strives to give nutritionists a comprehensive overview of the field at both the micro and the macro levels, for the purposes of planning, executing and evaluating individual and community interventions.
The program's main goals include an in-depth understanding of dietary behavior throughout the person's life cycle, during both health and illness. This is particularly relevant for chronic diseases and special populations. A major goal is to provide students with a solid foundation for research in a field that integrates dietary behavior with social, cultural and psychological aspects.
The lecturers have been selected on the basis of their knowledge and expertise in the sciences of behavior, nutrition, society, and the integration between them. The curriculum includes both mandatory and elective courses from the School of Public Health, as well as mandatory and elective courses of the program. There are two study options: one that requires writing a thesis, and another which does not. The second option requires the study of further courses and a class project. The program is designated for those with an undergraduate degree in nutrition. Those who complete the program will receive a Master in Applied Nutrition (MAN) which is a graduate degree in nutrition, health and behavior. 

 This concentration has two optional tracks, and the student is required to pick one:

A. MPH : Master of Public Health
B. MHA : Master of Health Administration (MHA)

Comparison: MHA and MPH

A. MPH- The central focus of the MPH program is on the description of patterns of disease within populations, and on the development, operation, financing, and evaluation of population-based programs designed to improve the health of populations within the community.

B. MHA - Since the MHA program is located in Haifa University's School of Public Health, MHA students take a series of core public health courses (i.e., courses introducing them to the health system, and in statistics, epidemiology, social and behavioral aspects of health, and environmental health). All of these topics are presented from a systemic/organizational management perspective, however, and connections to organizational purpose and health service delivery goals are emphasized throughout.
Beyond the common core courses, the emphasis of the MHA degree is clearly on the organization and effective and efficient management of health services organizations within dynamic policy and competitive market environments. The central focus of course material is on organization, operation and financing of the health services organization and on the development of a strong set of business management skills for application within the market-based health care environment.
*MHA track requires a total of 46 weekly hours