PUBH7710: Setting Priorities and Framing Public Health Issues

The course is designed to develop the skills required to define researchable policy questions, critically analyze policy issues and problems, articulate relevant policy options and bring research and data to help frame decision-making. Additionally, this course will familiarize students with the governmental public health system in the United States. In the field of health policy, there are always multiple sides to every issue and complex political and socio-economic dynamics that create a certain level of uncertainty about what to do. This complexity makes predicting outcomes and making recommendations for policy solutions difficult. Yet decisions still need to be made and are often made given the best information available at that particular time. Providing recommendations based on an analysis of available evidence is an important part of any decision-making process. Through the use of varied writing and presentation exercises students will learn to identify issues, develop problem statements, define an audience and analyze an issue based on a set of key criteria.

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