The Public Health Approach: From the Black Death to COVID-19 [ESP84]
Course highlights
EC points
0.7
Start date
19-8-2024
End date
23-8-2024
Course days
Monday to Friday (5 mornings)
Faculty
Prof. Alfredo Morabia
Course fee
€ 770
Location
Erasmus MC, Rotterdam NL
Level
Intermediate Advanced
Prerequisites
There is no prerequisite but the course covers material of increasing conceptual complexity as it moves from the 17th to the 21st century. Doctoral students usually benefit the most from the class, but, because the class is strictly conceptual – no statistical notions are required -, students without a statistical background usually get insights into methods and concepts (e.g., causal models) that are usually taught in a statistical way.
Disciplines
- Public Health
Application
Go to the ESP websiteDownloads
Detailed information about this course:
Description
Faculty: Prof. Alfredo Morabia, MD PhD
The field of public health has developed a distinctive way of approaching human health by shifting its focus from the health of individuals to the health of populations. This course revisits the history of this population thinking and how it has helped address and combat a series of historic epidemics.
The public health approach has historically evolved in response to major crises like the plague, smallpox, cholera, tuberculosis, influenza, HIV/AIDS, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Through these examples, we will see that individual health outcomes are intimately tied to the health of the population. This public health approach also helps reveal and address behavioral and social determinants of health through the comparison of population health outcomes.
The scientific methods used to study populations help uncover patterns that would otherwise remain hidden when focused on individual health or anecdotal data. Public health professionals think and respond to crises by researching and comparing population data. The course will also discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic—and the successes and failures surrounding our response to it—reinforces the urgent need for the public at large to understand the rational of the public health approach.
Please note: this course incorporates the previous course on the history of epidemiologic methods (ESP53 History of Epidemiologic Ideas) into a larger frame of the history of public health methods.
Please note that we are currently updating the information for 2024, therefore the course information is still subject to change.
Objectives
- Understand that public health focuses on populations whereas medicine focuses on individuals
- Understand that the methods and concepts used in public health are in constant evolution and transformation
- Link the plague, cholera, tuberculosis, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, HIV/AIDS, and Covid-19, in their societal context, with the evolution of specific methods and concepts in public health
- Develop an identity of public health scientists aware of the history of their discipline
Participant profile
Researchers in the different disciplines of public health, including epidemiology, biostatistics, sociology, medicine and anthropology, decision scientists, policy makers, historians of science, and jurists.
Assessment
Attendance
Reduction on fees
PLEASE NOTE: This does not apply to the fee of the research master programmes (120 EC points)
No fees are charged for Erasmus MC PhD candidates, provided they have an account in Hora Finita, the Erasmus University PhD registration system. When submitting the application, you can state that someone else pays your tuition fee.
In case of cancellation or no show, the cancellation policy applies based on the full course fee.
25% reduction for all (international) PhD candidates without formal appointment at Erasmus MC
Upon receipt of your application you will receive a request to upload proof of enrollment as a PhD candidate.