Harvard School of Public Health

The Harvard School of Public Health is (colloquially, HSPH) is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill, next to Harvard Medical School and Cambridge, Massachusetts, HSPH is considered one of the most prestigious schools focusing on health in the United States. It is the country's second-oldest school of public health. Founded in 1922, the Harvard School of Public Health grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first graduate training program in public health.

The School's objectives are:
 * to provide the highest level of education to health scientists, practitioners, and leaders
 * to foster new discoveries leading to improved health for the people of this country and all nations
 * to strengthen health capacities and services for communities

History
The School's predecessor was the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, founded in 1913; Harvard calls it "the nation's first graduate training program in public health." In 1922, the School for Health Officers became the Harvard School of Public Health, and in 1946 it was split off from the medical school and became a separate faculty of Harvard University.

Curriculum
The Master's in Public Health Program - MPH offers seven degree concentrations:
 * Clinical Effectiveness (CLE)
 * Family and Community Health (FCH)
 * Health Care Management and Policy (CMP)
 * International Health (IH)
 * Law and Public Health (LPH)
 * Occupational and Environmental Health (OEH)
 * Quantitative Methods (QM)

Degree programs offered by specific departments:


 * Biostatistics: ScM, PhD
 * Environmental Health: ScM, PhD, ScD, MOH, DPH
 * Epidemiology: ScM, ScD, DPH
 * Genetics and Complex Diseases: PhD
 * Health Policy and Management: ScM, ScD, PhD
 * Immunology and Infectious Diseases: ScD, PhD
 * Nutrition: ScD, DPH, PhD
 * Population and International Health: ScM, ScD, DPH
 * Society, Human Development, and Health: ScM, ScD, DPH

(PhD programs are offered under the aegis of the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences)

Centers and Institutes

 * Center for Health Communication
 * François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights
 * Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention
 * Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
 * Harvard Injury Control Research Center
 * Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative (HSPH HAI)
 * Cyprus International Institute for the Environment and Public Health

Research Projects

 * The Nurses Health Study and Nurses Health Study II, which have followed the health of over 100,000 nurses from 1976 to the present; its results have been used in hundreds of published papers
 * The Health Professionals Followup Study, a similar study of over fifty thousand male health professionals seeking to connect diet, exercise, smoking, and medications taken to frequency of cancer and cardiovascular disease
 * The International Health Systems Program, which has provided training or technical assistance to projects in 21 countries, and conducts health policy research
 * The Program in Health Care Financing, which studies the economics of national health care programs; evaluates the health care programs of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other countries; studies the effects of bringing HMO-like hospital reimbursement practices to developing countries; and applies hedonimetrics to health care
 * The Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research, which studies public health and humanitarian law and policy in the context of conflict-torn regions like the Gaza Strip and transnational issues like terrorism
 * The Lung Cancer S.O.S. study, examining the risk factors for and prognosis of lung cancer in terms of genetics and environment
 * The College Alcohol Study, which examines the causes of college binge drinking and approaches to prevention and harm reduction
 * The Program on the Global Demography of Aging, which studies policy issues related to aging with a focus on the developing world
 * The Superfund Basic Research Program (see Superfund), studying toxic waste management

Notable faculty (and past faculty)

 * Andrew Spielman, public health entomologist
 * Alexander H. Leighton, psychiatric epidemiologist

Notable Alumni

 * Timothy Johnson
 * Karl Lauterbach, German Politician (SPD)