Developing a management and finance training for future public health leaders

Public health leaders are increasingly being asked to address adaptive challenges in the context of finite and often limited resources. Budgets and their associated resources create the financial framework within which public health agencies and organizations must operate. Yet, many public health professionals expected to undertake roles requiring this foundational knowledge and skills are not trained in the fundamentals of public finance and are ill-equipped for managing and monitoring funds. Graduate courses in schools of public health most often are focused on health care management and finance or private sector finance. To meet the needs of future public health leaders, it is critical that academic content builds capacity in management and finance focused on public health practice. This paper describes the development of a Doctor of Public Health program management and finance course designed to prepare future public health leaders. The course aims to build the knowledge and skills of doctoral-level students to recognize the inherent challenges of public health finance and the importance of cultivating and managing resources to improve public health practice and achieve strategic public health goals.

A 10-Year Journey of the USM Master and Doctoral Degrees in Public Health

The article introduces readers to the Master of Public Health and Doctor of Public Health programmes, offered by the Department of Community Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia. The programme vision, structure and accomplishments over the decade are presented to provide an understanding of the programme. It is hoped that this professional programme will continue to flourish and produce new generations of public health medicine specialist equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to make significant contribution towards improving the health of the population.

Pharmacoepidemiology at Nordic School of Public Health NHV: Examples from 1999 to 2014

BACKGROUND

Pharmacoepidemiology is a branch of public health and had a place at the Nordic School of Public Health. Courses, Master's theses and Doctorates of Public Health (DrPH) in Pharmacoepidemiology were a relatively minor, but still important part of the school's activities.

METHODS

This paper gives a short background, followed by some snapshots of the activities at NHV, and then some illustrative case-studies. These case-studies list their own responsible co-authors and have separate reference lists.

RESULTS

In the Nordic context, NHV was a unique provider of training and research in pharmacoepidemiology, with single courses to complete DrPH training, as well as implementation of externally-funded research projects.

CONCLUSIONS

With the closure of NHV at the end of 2014, it is unclear if such a comprehensive approach towards pharmacoepidemiology will be found elsewhere in the Nordic countries.