biostatistics and health systems management.


Very often global public health programs are based on the assumption that a profound understanding of the multi-layered and multi-disciplinary nature of public health problems is the basis for successful public health understanding and advocacy.


Many degree programs are therefore strong on interdisciplinary interaction and maintain an interdisciplinary flavor designed to equip students with the analytical and practical tools needed to understand the ways in which societal, cultural, psychological, economic and political processes affect health, illness and adequate health care delivery.


Men and women working in public health may often find themselves working on multiple projects simultaneously, ranging from meeting with leaders in an international organization with global outreach, to interacting with local people at the grassroots level-working with them in their communities and homes; in which case, an individual's home may be an inner city housing project in New York or a hospice or drop-in centre in Kuala Lumpur.


Consequently, today's public health experts must be able to communicate effectively with a diverse circle of professionals in academia, politics, and field organizations as well as with villagers and the citizens of local and global communities around the world.


Thus, public health is an academic as well as a practice- oriented endeavor that requires professionals to understand the


critical linkages between theory and practice.


Dr Jeffery T Johnson is Associate Dean for Graduate Admissions and Student Affairs and Director of Undergraduate Public Health Studies at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.


Specialisations


At most schools of public health, there are several concentrations to choose from including biostatistics, environmental health, epidemiology, health education and communication, health law, industrial hygiene, international health and development, maternal and child health, nutrition, social and behavioural sciences, and toxicology.


In addition, some schools of public health offer opportunities for graduate study in tropical medicine and parasitology.


You can read about the key issues studied at public health schools in North America in detail here.


Career Options A myriad of job opportunities are available for public health professionals ranging from health administration to epidemiology, and from program management to laboratory research.


Many public health programs emphasize the development of leadership and expertise in the broad fields of research, education and service with the aim to deliver graduates who can effectively apply relevant theoretical models and concepts to public health issues and reflect upon theoretical developments on the basis of practical experience in the field.


Key Skills


Relevant analytical tools are borrowed from a variety of disciplines such as methodology and statistics, epidemiology, sociology, social and cultural anthropology, social psychology, political science, economics and the science of management and organization.


Students learn how to use these tools to perform sound problem analysis and to ground appropriate health care policy, as well as adequate health care interventions, on the results of such analysis.


Effective public health professionals also rely on a variety of practical skills that enable them to create change and implement public health policies and interventions. Students are taught how to plan, implement, monitor, evaluate and adjust programs, policies and interventions; and also how to identify, recruit, involve, commit, and guide stakeholders operating at the different levels.


Find out more about taking a degree within the life sciences and medical sectors at: www.topuniversities. com/courses/life-sciences- medicine/guide


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