Graduate faculty of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the School of Public Health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth (UNTHSC-FW) are also members of the graduate faculty of the University of North Texas and thus can serve as mentors or committee members of UNT graduate students appropriate to their graduate appointment. See the UNTHSC-FW Graduate Catalog for UNTHSC-FW graduate faculty listings.
University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth (UNTHSC-FW)
Medical Education Building 1, Room 816
3500 Camp Bowie Boulevard
Fort Worth, TX 76107
(817) 735-2560 or (800) 511-GRAD
Web site: www.hsc.unt.edu
E-mail: gsbs@hsc.unt.edu
Graduate Advisers:
Robert Wordinger, Anatomy and Cell Biology
Richard Easom, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Victoria Rudick, Biomedical Sciences/Biotechnology
H. Fred Downey, Integrative Physiology
Jerry Simecka, Microbiology and Immunology
Eugene Quist, Pharmacology
Master's and doctoral degree programs in the biomedical sciences and master of public health degree program are available through the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth. These programs culminate with a specialization in anatomy and cell biology, biochemistry and molecular biology, microbiology and immunology, pharmacology, integrative physiology, biotechnology or biomedical sciences. A joint degree (DO/MS or DO/PhD) is available to students admitted to the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (TCOM) at UNT Health Science Center.
An integrated curriculum includes biochemistry, biomedical cell and molecular biology, biomedical ethics, immunology, physiology, pharmacology and statistics.
To obtain further information or to request a catalog, please call (817) 735-2560 or (800) 511-GRAD or e-mail gsbs@hsc.unt.edu.
University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth
Building I, Room 416
3500 Camp Bowie Boulevard
Fort Worth, TX 76107
(817) 735-2252 or (877) 868-7741
Web site: www.hsc.unt.edu
E-mail: sph@hsc.unt.edu
Track Directors:
John Licciardone, Administrative Medicine
Ximena Urrutia-Rojas, Community Health
Sam Atkinson, Environmental Health
Antonio Rene, Epidemiology
Douglas Mains, Health Administration
Joseph Doster, Health Behaviors
Kenneth Koelln, Health Economics
Susan Brown Eve, Health Services Research
Antonio Rene, Doctoral Program
Muriel Marshal, DO/MPH Program
Student Affairs
Thomas Moorman, Director
The School of Public Health currently offers a Master of Public Health degree and is scheduled to begin offering a Doctor of Public Health degree in the spring of 2001. The MPH degree program includes a core curriculum of six courses (totaling 18 credit hours) that provide overviews of areas every public health professional should be knowledgeable in: biostatistics, environmental health, epidemiology, health administration and health behavior.
Students then complete 21 credit hours in their chosen concentration and an additional 6 credit hours in their thesis/non-thesis requirements. Every student will also go through a hands-on public health practice experience in a community setting, such as a public health department or a volunteer agency.
The objectives of the MPH and DrPH programs are to prepare students to meet the needs of the growing health care industry and the demand for trained public health workers in the public sector. Students in this program have the added benefit of interacting with health care providers and students in the osteopathic medical program at the Health Science Center, as well as faculty engaged in significant public health research at both the UNTHSC-FW and UNT campuses.
Today, public health is the umbrella over many issues, including some that seem unrelated to health care but that ultimately influence it. Public health ranges from the study of smog in the air we breathe to gang intervention programs on our neighborhood streets. Growing threats from our environment, the resurgence of infectious diseases, increasing violence, an aging population and the escalating costs of health care are all immediate concerns of public health professionals.
Public health professionals monitor and evaluate the health needs of entire communities, promote healthy practices and behaviors, and work to identify and eliminate environmental hazards to assure our population stays health. They are employed by government, hospitals, health systems, universities and many private companies. Without public health, our society could not advance. With it, we are making a difference.
Community Health: A broadly applicable program emphasizing skills relevant to today's public health professionals, including community assessment, program planning and evaluation and health education interventions. The track prepares professionals with a variety of disciplinary backgrounds (medicine, nursing, social work, nutrition, dentistry, health education, health promotion, etc.) and can be tailored to an individual's previous experience and professional goals.
Environmental Health: Designed for students with varied backgrounds and interests, who desire careers related to the environmental aspects of public health. Specifically, the track provides the expertise and experiences to analyze, monitor, interpret and mitigate the effects of chemical contaminant and microbial and viral pathogens in water, air, soil and food on public health and ecological health.
Epidemiology: Designed for students seeking technical skills in the fundamental methods of disease investigation and prevention in large populations. Courses emphasize basic and advanced epidemiologic principles and their application to current problems in public health and related disciplines.
Health Administration: Provides students with the competencies necessary for administrative careers in health professions. Students learn to deal with a variety of problems relating to the organization, management, planning and evaluation of public health and health care services, with a primary emphasis on the public sector.
Health Behavior: For students who want professional careers in the application of behavioral science principles to the investigation and promotion of behavioral health and prevention of illness. Students will acquire skills to monitor, analyze, anticipate and influence the complex interaction of factors comprising the mind-body-environment matrix of health.
Health Economics: Designed to provide professionals with expertise to analyze alternative options for allocating scarce community resources to competing public health programs to maximize the benefits to society as a whole. This will also establish the theoretical basis for public health (government provision of health services) as opposed to private health (market-based provision of health care services).
Health Services Research: An interdisciplinary field concerned with assessing the need for health care services, examining factors that influence the use of health care services, examining the types of services and organizations that can be used to deliver care, planning systems to deliver those services, monitoring the use of services, and assessing outcomes of delivery systems for patient populations.
Biostatistics: Designed to train public health professionals to engage in biomedical research, data management and data analysis. Emphasis is on the methodology and applications of contemporary statistical procedures and research designs, using advanced computing technology. Students will also develop the theoretical competency to understand and apply information published in statistical journals.
Generalist MPH: This option is designed for mid-career individuals with five or more years of public health related experience. Designed to allow individual tailoring of the degree plan based on the student's interest and future career goals.
Two options are available in the MPH degree: a thesis or a non-thesis option. The thesis option requires 45-46 graduate hours depending on the track, including 21 hours of core courses, 6 hours of thesis research, 6-18 hours of track requirements and 3-12 hours of electives. Students choosing the non-thesis option must take a 3 credit capstone course and a 3 hour special problem rather than 6 thesis research hours. Core courses required of all students include: Environmental Health, Principles of Epidemiology, Health Administration, Principles of Public Health, Biostatistics and Behavioral Epidemiology. For information on additional course requirements of specific tracks, contact the appropriate track director.
To be considered for admission, you should:
To be considered for admission, contact the University of North Texas Health Science Center/School of Public Health for an admissions application. The completed application should be submitted along with:
The Department of Sociology (UNT) and the School of Public Health (UNTHSC-FW) offer a dual degree program with a specialization in health services research. Students in the program complete either a master's or doctoral degree in sociology, and the Master of Public Health (MPH). The dual degree program is administered by the Department of Sociology.
Students must complete either a master's or doctoral degree in sociology, including designated electives in sociology as well as designated electives in the interdisciplinary field of health services research. The designated electives must include the track core requirements (Seminar in the Sociology of Health, Economics of Health Care, Medical Geography, and Seminar in Evaluation Research). The master's degree in sociology requires a minimum of 30 hours (thesis option) or 36 hours (non-thesis option); the doctoral degree requires a minimum of 90 hours beyond the bachelor's or 60 hours beyond the master's degree.
To receive the second master's degree in the field of public health, students must complete a minimum of 27 additional hours, including the required MPH core courses (Environmental Health, Principles of Epidemiology, Health Administration, Principles of Public Health, Biostatistics I and II, and Behavioral Epidemiology) and either a thesis or both the capstone course in public health and a special problems course.
The primary objective of the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO)/MPH is to provide clinical professionals specialized public health training to develop, integrate and apply culturally competent social, psychological and biomedical approaches to the promotion and preservation of health. The DO/MPH is designed so that the requisite requirements could be completed during the four years of medical education, providing the student begins MPH coursework the summer prior to matriculation in the medical curriculum. Approximately 15 semester credit hours of the medical curriculum may be applied toward the 45 credit hours required for the MPH degree. However, a student may elect to complete the DO/MPH in five years, taking an additional year to complete the MPH requirements.
Currently, the School of Public Health at the UNT Health Science Center has an arrangement with the Texas A&M Baylor College of Dentistry to offer the DDS/MPH degree. Those interested in this program should contact the graduate school for information on admission and requirements for the degrees.
The graduate school also offers a dual degree with the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Texas, whereby a student can earn a Doctor of Philosophy degree in health psychology/behavioral medicine from UNT, coupled with an MPH from the UNT Health Science Center. Please contact the School of Public Health for further information.
All Courses of Instruction are located in the UNTHSC-FW catalog. <
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