Masters of public health approved

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By: Louis Ferracuti

After three years of development, the brand new Masters of Public Health graduate program is being inaugurated for the 2015-2016 school year. The program was given the funding go-ahead from the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities on March 6, 2015. The Ministry agreed to fund the program on a student-by-student basis.

The program brings McMaster’s signature style of evidence-based learning and research to the fields of public policy, health management, and environmental health, and is hoping to attract a mix of veteran public health officials, medical residents, and graduates from programs like Health Sciences and Arts and Science.

The aim is to train professionals who can work to improve Canada’s public health system with regards to the essential functions of population health assessment, health promotion, disease and injury prevention, health protection, and health surveillance.

There has been a growing number of Masters of Public Health programs since the SARS outbreak of 2002-03, making this new program yet another in an ongoing trend.

“The Canadian public health system was found wanting in terms of its public health capacity and response,” said Dr. Fran Scott, incoming Program Director. “So a number of MPH programs have developed across the country.”

Only China and Hong Kong, where SARS originated, suffered more deaths from the respiratory disease than Canada.

Staying true to its roots in Canadian public health crises, the program is centered on Canadian health issues.

“We’d certainly be excited about our students going on to global health work, but we’re primarily focusing on Canadian needs in public health,” said Scott.

An already-existing public health and preventative medicine residency, as well as a tradition of evidence-based medicine and self-directed, problem-based learning made McMaster a prime candidate for the new program.

The program contributes to the ongoing growth in both size and national renown of the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster. The FHS has been ranked second in the country for five years in biomedical and health care research funding by the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, managing $133 million in medical research a year.

Although offers have yet to be sent out, a full class for the upcoming first year of the program is expected.

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