London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The overall module aim is to enable students to apply and build upon the skills they have learned during the preceding terms to translate evidence into policies and policy into practice in developing countries

Intended learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the module, a student should be able to:

• Apply public health disciplines in an integrated manner to review evidence and produce policy recommendations.
• Develop strategic public health programme plans.
• Understand strategic reviews of public health programmes. 
• Organise outbreak investigations.

Session Content

The module is expected to cover the following topics:

• Overview of the global burden of disease and public health intervention strategies and policies.
• The process of developing evidence-based guidelines at WHO.
• Critical appraisal and interpretation of data from randomised controlled trials, observational studies, systematic reviews, qualitative studies and cost-effectiveness analysis for making public health policy.
• Applying the diverse mix of public health disciplines to different scenarios of current public health issues in developing countries.
• Approaches to monitoring and evaluation of the delivery of interventions.
• Programme grant application and the review process.
• Procurement & Supply Chain Management.
• Data needs and communication strategies for advocacy.
• Health economics for public health practitioners.
• Research into policy: the application of analytical (epidemiological, social science, & economic ) skills to examine the evidence base and its sufficiency for appropriate policy development.
• Policy into practice: the demonstration of strategic programme planning skills based on the specific policy and the implementation context.

Mode of delivery

This module is delivered predominantly face-to-face. Where specific teaching methods (lectures, seminars, discussion groups) are noted in this module specification these will be delivered by predominantly face-to-face sessions. There will be a combination of live and interactive activities (synchronous learning) as well as self-directed study (asynchronous learning).

Assessment

The assessment for this module has been designed to measure student learning against the module's intended learning outcomes (ILOs) as listed above. The grade for the summative assessment will go towards the overall award GPA. 

Assessment will involve the submission of a policy discussion report on a potential intervention that is currently considered to reduce disease burden in a low- and middle-income country. The maximum word limit for the policy discussion paper is 2,500 words excluding references.

Credits

• CATS: 15
• ECTS: 7.5

Module specification

For full information regarding this module please see the module specification.