Curriculum

The doctoral program curriculum provides students comprehensive global health knowledge and research skills to prepare for diverse careers and leadership in the field of global health.

Research Methods

Students receive fundamental training in research methodologies critical to conducting and comprehending global health research, including:

• Epidemiology
• Biostatistics
• Implementation science
• Demography
• Qualitative research

Students then take advanced coursework in at least one methodology most applicable to their research interests.

Global Health Proseminars

Students take core coursework in the principles and challenges of global health and study the key institutions, frameworks, and approaches for facing those global health challenges through a doctoral-level global health Proseminar Series. Students explore and analyze in-depth the topics that are cross-cutting to all work in the field of global health. The Proseminar Series serves as the backbone of the PhD curriculum:

• Global health development, history and inequity
• Global health systems and financing
• Global health policy
• Research ethics and practice in global health
• Global health economics
• Global health architecture and diplomacy

Doctoral Seminar

The global health doctoral seminar is designed to provide professional development skills and career training/mentorship in global health research. The doctoral seminar focuses on enabling students to advance their academic and research skills, with the ultimate goal of facilitating the development of the doctoral student’s capacity to conduct research in global health. Seminar consists of several types of class sessions, including but not limited to:

• Guest speaker presentations on their work in global health, from across UCSF and beyond;
• Novel methods seminars to expose students to an array of research methods in which they might want to gain further training;
• Writing workshops focused on scientific writing, peer review and publication procedures, and grant writing to help prepare students for successful careers in global health research; and
• Student “works in progress” (WIP) presentations, in which faculty and students provide feedback to presenters on their research.

Doctoral seminar is led by the Program Directors and meets weekly in the fall, winter, and spring quarters in the first two years of the program, while students are completing their coursework and specifying their dissertation research.

Core Curriculum

As stated above, students take required coursework in research methods training and global health content, including:

Electives

In addition to the core curriculum, students tailor their coursework and choose electives that provide further depth of training in the methodology and content areas appropriate for their chosen field of study. Students may select electives from any department across UCSF, with the approval of their academic advisor and the program director. Students also may register for certain courses at other Bay Area universities through the University of California Intercampus Exchange Program and the San Francisco Consortium.

Electives offered by the following departments within UCSF may be of particular interest:

• Epidemiology and Biostatistics: Training in Clinical Research
• Epidemiology and Biostatistics: Implementation Science
• Humanities and Social Sciences: Medical Anthropology, History of Health Sciences
• Nursing
• Nursing: Health Policy
• Sociology

Areas of Specialization

The PhD program focuses on research related to the delivery of care in health systems. Health systems are broadly defined, ranging from community-level preventative care to hospital-based clinical care, to policy decisions at the level of a ministry of health. While the PhD program expects all students to develop competencies that address healthcare infrastructure, delivery, and implementation through their course of study, students may choose either a clinical or a social and behavioral science perspective for their health systems research. Potential candidates must select one area of specialization at the time of application.

Clinical

Focuses on major diseases that contribute to the global burden of disease and clinical interventions that improve health in low-resource communities. Examples of work include:

• Identify new surveillance strategies for malaria in low-endemic settings
• Implement and test interventions to address immediate post-natal care to improve mother and infant survival
• Define best practices for tuberculosis care and control
• Reduce the burden of musculoskeletal disease and prevent amputations in resource-poor environments
• Deliver vaccines to establish immunological equity

Social and Behavioral Science

Focuses on economic, legal, and political structures that influence risk factors or disease burdens and on the association between social and environmental determinants of health and healthcare delivery in low-resource settings. Example of work include:

• Identify sustainable, innovative financing mechanisms to best support malaria elimination
• Develop culturally appropriate measures of person-centered care for family planning and abortion services
• Reduce AIDS stigma among health professionals in Asia
• Build workforce capacity and health training to reduce preterm births in East Africa
• Examine the role of food security on pregnancy and birth outcomes of HIV-infected women