Abstract
Interest has been growing in regard to increasing the public health workforce and standardizing training to ensure there are competent professionals to support rebuilding and reinforcing the public health infrastructure of the United States. The need for public health leaders was recognized as early as the hookworm control campaign during 1909–1914 when it became apparent that prevention of disease should be distinct from clinical medicine and should be conducted by professionally trained, dedicated full-time public health practitioners. In recent years, research on the public health workforce and on standardizing health workforce education has significantly expanded. A key element of such a workforce is public health leadership, and DrPH programs are the means to provide effective public health education for these future health professionals. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the general trend of DrPH programs from past to present and analyze the common themes and variations of 28 Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited DrPH programs in the United States. This research utilized a mixed-methods approach, investigating DrPH education at each school or program to improve our understanding of the current status of DrPH programs.
Highlights
IntroductionRationale for establishing the Doctor of Public Health in the United States
Rationale for establishing the Doctor of Public Health in the United StatesThe earliest postgraduate training for public health physicians dates back to 1882 in Munich, Germany [1]
Strength What are the strengths of the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) program at your school, and how could these strengths be used to successfully educate and empower the future leaders of public health? (Prompt: If interviewee can’t answer this right away, the following prompts are recommended: school location, access to public health work, priorities, core expertise, or any other factor)
Summary
Rationale for establishing the Doctor of Public Health in the United States. The earliest postgraduate training for public health physicians dates back to 1882 in Munich, Germany [1]. Abraham Flexner, an expert and reformer of educational practices and a proponent of the German medical education model of encompassing basic science and clinical training, wrote the Flexner Report of 1910, which adapted the German model and stimulated the establishment of a biomedical model for medical training in the United States [2, 3]. A DrPH program was first established in 1909 at the Harvard School of Medicine, which conferred the first DrPH degree in 1911 [4]. The Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers was established in 1913 [5].
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