School of Public Health

Review School of Public Health Planning Process to Date

May 2011–An initial visioning retreat was held bringing together over 50 Faculty from OHSU and PSU to discuss the goal of creating a School of Public Health (SoPH) in which both institutions participate

• An initial brainstorming session began to identify the potential themes that could make a SoPH unique.
• Eight workgroups were then identified to further assess potential resources, current curriculum, strengths and weaknesses associated with each of the identified themes.
• The product of each workgroup was collected and summarized, for subsequent review by the workgroups in preparation for the second visioning session.

January 2012– Review of Workgroup Theme Contributions

The following definitions of each thematic area were developed by the assigned workgroup:

a) Life Course – Health involves events that happen over time.Those influences include social and biological factors, cultural beliefs, history, politics, economics, and individual behaviors. Strengths were identified in maternal child health, family planning, development and aging.

b) Global Health – Use public health approaches to develop, administer, implement, and evaluate culturally sensitive health promotion, disease-prevention and behavior-change programs, as well as to mobilize community resources for planned social change.

c) Community Engagement – A powerful, recognized strength in both institutions for integrating community-based learning, and more traditional field experiences and similar forms of experiential learning, students participate in co-curricular service projects and community-based research.

d) Social Determinants of Health – Focuses on the health outcomes of circumstances in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age. The theme addresses the epidemiology, prevention, and improvement of social factors, as well as relationships among social and biologic factors, influencing physical and mental health, locally, nationally, and globally.

e) Public Health Informatics – Focuses on a major and growing area within the larger field of biomedical and health informatics.Biomedical and health informatics is about capturing, using, and applying information. In the public health sphere, it includes activities such as enhancing disease surveillance and reporting with data from clinical (electronic health record) systems; extending biological research (e.g., genomics) to populations to assess the impact of genes and their interaction with behavior, diet, and the environment on the population's health; and empowering people and communities to improve their health with information tools, such as mobile applications and personal health records.

f) Urban Health – Focuses on the impact of the built environment on human health and how judicious planning of urban environments can lead to improved community health and wellbeing.

The initial analysis conducted by the workgroups clearly indicates that there is a large number of courses through all of the areas required for accreditation.