- BIOL 23a - Introduction to Ecology
This course has two major aims. First, it presents the key principles of ecology including characteristics of Earth’s biomes; how organisms respond to environmental extremes; how they obtain energy; how energy moves through ecosystems; how species interact through competition, parasitism, and predation; how ecosystem diversity affects ecosystem function; how human activities are affecting the Earth’s land, atmosphere and oceans. Students practice with the basic models of population growth, of sociality and altruism, of life history evolution, of optimal foraging, and others. A second aim of the course is to develop students' skills as users of the peer-reviewed literature. By the end of the course students can start with the name of an organism or topic, locate the most recent papers on that topic, succinctly summarize these papers, identify a gap in our understanding, and finally write a brief research proposal aimed at filling that gap.
Instructor: Eric Olson
- HS 104b - American Health Care
Examines and critically analyzes the United States health care system, emphasizing the major trends and issues that have led to the current sense of "crisis." In addition to providing a historical perspective, this course will establish a context for analyzing the current, varied approaches to health care reform.
Instructor: Stuart Altman
- HS 110a - Wealth and Poverty
Examines why the gap between richer and poorer citizens appears to be widening in the United States and elsewhere, what could be done to reverse this trend, and how the widening disparity affects major issues of public policy.
Instructor: Thomas Shapiro
- HS 120a - Race and the Law
This course may not be repeated for credit by students who have taken WMNS 120a in previous years.
Explores how race has been defined and used to uphold or undermine the principles espoused in the Constitution and other sources of the law in the United States. Issues discussed range from treatment of Native Americans at the nation's birth to the modern concept of affirmative action. One of our premises is that ideally the law represents the synthesis of the narratives of various elements of a society.
Instructor: Anita Hill
- HS 124a - Dilemmas of Long-Term Care
Fifty million Americans have a disability. What kinds of help do they want? What are the responsibilities of families, friends, and communities to help? Current U.S. approaches to service delivery, financing, and organization are reviewed, and alternatives considered.
Instructor: Walter Leutz
- WMGS 106b - Women in the Health Care System
Explores the position and roles of women in the U.S. health care system and how it defines and meets women's health needs. The implications for health care providers, health care management, and health policy are discussed.
Instructor: Lorraine Klerman
Health: Science, Society and Policy Classes
taught by Heller faculty
- HSSP 89a - Internship and Analysis
This course combines a supervised internship in a health care or policy organization and a biweekly seminar. Internship placements are arranged in collaboration with the course instructor and could include work in a department of public health, hospital or health care agency, health advocacy organization, or other appropriate government or private-sector organization. The biweekly seminar has students use their internships as case studies to examine various aspects of the health care system. Students will consider their role within their respective agencies and how their own work and that of their agency impacts community health. The course will consider this work at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, and societal levels. Drawing from contemporary notions of leadership as a process of skills and abilities (rather than a placement in an organizational hierarchy), the course provides specific attention to how students might become effective leaders of the health and human service professions.
Instructor: Thomas Mackie
- HSSP 100b - Introduction to Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Population Health
Enrollment limited to HSSP majors and minors.
Core course for the HSSP major and minor. Provides an orientation to the science of epidemiology, the quantitative foundation for public health policy. As a comprehensive survey course, students from varying academic backgrounds are introduced to biostatistics and major epidemiological concepts, and provided with training in their application to the study of health and disease in human populations. Case studies examine how environmental, physical, behavioral, psychological, and social factors contribute to the disease burden of populations.
Instructor: Eve Wittenberg
- HSSP 102a - Global Perspectives on Health
A primer on major issues in health care in developing nations. Topics include the natural history of disease and levels of prevention; epidemiological transitions; health disparities; and determinants of health including culture, social context, and behavior. Also covers: infectious and chronic disease incidence and prevalence; the role of nutrition, education, reproductive trends, and poverty; demographic transition including aging and urbanization; the structure and financing of health systems; and the globalization of health.
Instructor: Sarita Bhalotra
- HSSP 104b - Health Economics
Prerequisites: ECON 2a
Emphasizes the concepts and tools of health economics applicable to both developed and developing countries. Topics include: cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis, the demand for health services, insurance and risk, managed care, provider reimbursement, national health insurance, and an overview of health care systems in other countries.
Instructor: Dominic Hodgkin
- HSSP 106a - Managing Medicine
Prerequisite: HS 104b or LGLS 114a
Overview of the principles of management within health-care organizations. Through case studies of real hospitals, insurers, and firms, the class examines choices of clinicians and managers aimed at improving quality, containing costs, driving technology adoption, or promoting new ventures.
Instructor: Darren Zinner
- HSSP 107b - Health Care Technology: Evaluating Emerging Medical Services, Drugs and Devices
Prerequisite: HS 104b or permission of the instructor. Priority given to HSSP majors and minors.
An overview of the role of medical technology in the U.S. health care system, with a focus on the impact of prescription drugs on the health care system, their promise for the future, and inherent risks.
Instructor: Cindy Thomas
- HSSP 110a - Integrative Seminar on Health
Prerequisite: Senior status in the HSSP major.
The capstone course is designed to bring all HSSP seniors together to integrate their academic course work and fieldwork/laboratory experiences across a range of health-related disciplines. Each year the course focuses on a single issue that lends itself to examination from a variety of perspectives. Topics vary from year to year at the discretion of the faculty who teach the course. Refer to the Schedule of Classes for specific topics. Course is usually team-taught by faculty in different disciplines.
Instructor: Sarita Bhalotra and Peter Conrad
- HSSP 112b - Public Health Perspectives on Child Well-Being
Provides students with information about the health of children and their families from a public health perspective.
Instructor: Lorraine Klerman
- HSSP 114b - Racial/Ethnic and Gender Inequalities in Health and Health Care
This course examines epidemiological patterns of health status by race/ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status, and the current theories and critiques explaining inequalities in health status, access and quality, as well as conceptual models, frameworks, and interventions for eliminating inequalities.
Instructor: Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson
- HSSP 115b - Perspectives on Behavioral Health: Alcohol, Drugs, and Mental Health
A survey course which focuses on the science and biological basis of substance use and mental disorders, and linkages between behavioral health and general health. Consequences of behavioral health on society are discussed. Policy responses and the treatment system are assessed for their effectiveness.
Instructor: Constance Horgan and Sharon Reif
- HSSP 192b - Sociology of Disability
May not be repeated for credit by students who have taken SOC 192b in previous years.
In the latter half of the 20th century, disability emerged as an important social-political-economic-medical issue, with its own distinct history, characterized as a shift from "good will to civil rights." Traces that history and the way people with disabilities are seen and unseen, and see themselves. Usually offered every third year.
Instructor: Stephen Gulley