Introduction to Public Health Policy

This course will provide an introduction to the range and impact of public health problems, as well as the tools used by policy-makers to describe and analyze them. In this course we will discuss the philosophical, economic, and political drivers of domestic and international public health policy, as well as demonstrate the potential and limitations of analytic tools (economics, decision science, epidemiology, risk assessment) using specific public health topics as examples (e.g. vaccine-preventable diseases, hunger, chronic disease risk factors, pandemic influenza, health care reform, bioterrorism). Current events and examples in the media, as well as classic case studies, will provide the basis for discussions and readings. (Not open to students who have taken INTD 1094)