Population Health Leadership

This programme will provide you with the skills and knowledge to: 

• Synthesise the principles of population health science and demonstrate how these are applied in complex health, social and community care ecosystems for better health outcomes 
• Critically appraise and evaluate the core rationale and research designs of population health sciences; and apply appropriate methods drawing from the following population health disciplines: social and behavioural sciences; epidemiology; biostatistics; environment health sciences; health policy, economics, systems and management 
• Interpret and critically appraise the implications and outcomes of the social determinants of health on vulnerable populations, including applying the principles of equity in public health promotion and provision 
• Critically evaluate the feasible application pathways for innovative approaches and solutions for population health 
• Deliver strong leadership through skills in critical analysis, advocacy, communication, management, community and cultural orientation, and professionalism and ethics (ASPHER Education Committee Core Competency Model in Public Health) 
• Successfully manage and complete an academic learning journey and award, using online educational and production tools and methods. 

• Module 1: The overarching aim of this module is to introduce the learner to the key elements of the understand-decide-act framework set out here. The module will sequentially connect the key attributes and aims of a population-health approach, the primary avenues of action, the scientific steps to guide its decisions, and the key strategies and skills to implement programmes effectively. As a ‘framer’ this module will orientate learners for the overall course and approach.
• Module 2: The aim of this module is to prepare future leaders in population health by understanding how to plan a population health research project using quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods research methodologies, and to develop the skills required to appropriately interpret and communicate research findings.
• Module 3: Gain an appreciation of global health challenges and solutions and be able to engage in leadership and evidence-based decision making to contribute effectively to improving public health.
• Module 4: The aim of this module is to provide students with skills to critically evaluate the evidence in relation to intervention design, implementation and evaluation that maximises the effectiveness of individual and population health interventions.
• Module 5: The aim of this module is to ensure students develop a holistic, systems and network-based understanding of population health generation that also takes account of operational drivers and the importance of an enabling and distributed leadership approach – including their own. The module will enable students to critically appraise and connect different system levels, organisational drivers and leadership values and strategies – reinforcing the holistic and pragmatic idea that population health is ‘generated’ through leadership on a broad range of mechanisms.
• Module 6: The aim of this module is to ensure students consider and address the challenges of implementing evidence-based population health policies, programmes and interventions and develop a strategic perspective for evidence-based action drawing on the sciences of implementation, health economics and outcomes research, knowledge translation and organisational learning, and including participative designs for community engagement such as realist evaluation, PPI and Community-Based-Participatory-Research (CBPR).
• Module 7: This module will provide the skills needed to carry out a health needs assessment, taking into account the impact of social determinants on health. It will also focus on decision-making regarding allocation and prioritisation of resources to meet public health need.
• Module 8: The aim of this module is to apply a comprehensive framework for integrating diverse scientific disciplines and sources of evidence to prioritise decisions for resource allocation and action in population health.
• Module 9: The aim of this module, building on introductory modules, is to cultivate awareness of ethical considerations in relation to population health, teach students how to synthesise existing evidence on a population health topic relevant to their practice or interest, develop a knowledge translation plan to communicate the findings of the evidence synthesis to relevant stakeholders, and create an implementation strategy which will outline a plan to facilitate the effective adoption or scale-up of an intervention relevant to the evidence synthesis topic.
• Applied Research Project: This project supports scholars to either (a) undertake the evidence synthesis developed in Module 9 relevant to a specific population health topic or where feasible, (b) to execute a project, for example, primary data collection, secondary data analysis, process evaluation related to the protocol developed during Module 9 given the necessary ethical approval and data governance is in place prior to data collection/analysis.