Epidemiology MPH

Degree Awarded: Master of Public Health (MPH)
Minimum Required Credits: 42.0
Co-op Option: None
Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code: 26.1309
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code: 19-1041

About the Program

Students in the Master of Public Health in Epidemiology program learn and apply quantitative approaches to characterize, monitor, and understand the health of populations. Students gain experience in the design of epidemiologic studies and in the analysis of data. Epidemiology and Biostatistics faculty focus on a range of analytic approaches and their application to a spectrum of topics including social inequalities in health, neighborhood differences in health, chronic and infectious disease epidemiology, the epidemiology of health across life stages, nutrition, physical activity and obesity, and clinical research.

Career paths in epidemiology often involve data collection, analyses, and interpretation to inform policy and practice in governmental, private, nonprofit, academic, and healthcare settings. Epidemiology graduates may also manage research studies that lead to changes in decision making in public health.

Additional Information

For more information about this program, please contact the Dornsife School of Public Health 

Admission Requirements

Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health admissions requirements can be found at: https://drexel.edu/dornsife/admissions/overview/

Degree Requirements

¹

Foundational Public Health Knowledge: Public Health Foundations is only required for students who do not have a degree from a CEPH accredited school. Students who have a degree from a CEPH accredited school will take an elective in place of Public Health Foundations.  

²

Students can take additional 5000-9999 level electives across the university with Program Director approval.

Students may be able to use elective credits to further focus their academic work by coupling a DSPH graduate certificate. Students must have enough applicable elective credits to complete the certificate program without going beyond the required credits for the program. Students can contact their academic advisor for more information.

Program Learning Outcomes

• Apply epidemiological methods to settings and situations in public health practice  
• Select quantitative and qualitative data collection methods appropriate for a given public health context  
• Analyze quantitative and qualitative data using biostatistics, informatics, computer-based programming, and software, as appropriate 
• Interpret results of data analysis for public health research, policy, or practice
• Compare the organization, structure, and function of health care, public health, and regulatory systems across national and international settings
• Discuss the means by which structural bias, social inequities, and racism undermine health and create challenges to achieving health equity at organizational, community and systemic levels  
• Assess population needs, assets, and capacities that affect communities’ health  
• Apply awareness of cultural values and practices to the design, implementation, or critique of public health policies or programs 
• Design a population-based policy, program, project, or intervention  
• Explain basic principles and tools of budget and resource management  
• Select methods to evaluate public health programs  
• Discuss the policy-making process, including the roles of ethics and evidence  
• Propose strategies to identify stakeholders and build coalitions and partnerships for influencing public health outcomes  
• Advocate for political, social, or economic policies and programs that will improve health in diverse populations
• Evaluate policies for their impact on public health and health equity 
• Apply leadership and/or management principles to address a relevant issue  
• Apply negotiation and mediation skills to address organizational or community challenges  
• Select communication strategies for different audiences and sectors  
• Communicate audience-appropriate (i.e., non-academic, non-peer audience) public health content, both in writing and through oral presentation 
• Describe the importance of cultural competence in communicating public health content  
• Integrate perspectives from other sectors and/or professions to promote and advance population health  
• Apply a systems thinking tool to visually represent a public health issue in a format other than standard narrative  
• Define a problem and formulate a testable hypothesis 
• Review and critically evaluate the validity of the design, analysis, and interpretation of findings from published research studies 
• Create and manage datasets appropriate for epidemiologic analyses from sources such as surveillance, large-scale data (i.e, Big Data, such as electronic medical records, administrative claims data), or other health-related research 
• Conduct univariable and multivariable regression and other semi- and non-parametric analytic techniques of an epidemiologic data set using a standard statistical software package 
• Create effective peer-review quality written and visual summaries of analysis results