Your medical school training will focus on the treatment of individual patients. For students who want to enter clinical practice with a broader perspective, Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM) has partnered with Chamberlain University College of Health Professions to offer a unique opportunity to pursue a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree at the same time as your Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree.
Is It Worth Getting an MPH With an MD?
Physicians with an MPH degree often have a broader understanding of how decisions made for individual patients can ultimately shape the entire community. Through specialized study, they perform an in-depth analysis of the intricate balance of elements that make up healthy communities. An MD with an MPH degree can allow you to bridge the gap between patient and community and think about patients and health issues with a wider perspective. The goal of MPH programs is to allow students to learn how to provide patients with better, more targeted care.
An MPH degree can allow you to practice clinical medicine more effectively.
MPH Program Overview - Chamberlain University
Chamberlain’s flexible, 43-credit MPH is a generalist graduate degree program. RUSM students who combine the degree with their MD studies can complete the program in as few as four years. The coursework—which is 100% online—includes:
- Quantitative methods in public health (biostatistics)
- Epidemiology
- Leadership
- Healthcare policy
- Community activism and program development
- Behavioral and social aspects of public health
- Environmental health
- Cultural competency and global health
The program also requires a fieldwork practicum known as an Applied Practice Experience (APE). The practicum allows students to synthesize and apply coursework concepts to resolve real-world public health issues in public health practice.
MPH Program Benefits
After the completion of the Chamberlain MPH program, graduates will be able to:
- Use quantitative techniques and epidemiological tools to evaluate, monitor, and analyze the health status of populations, along with their determinants of health and illness.
- Employ evidence-based reasoning and health informatics methods to develop, manage, budget, evaluate, and plan public health programs and interventions for improving community health outcomes.
- Define strategies for identifying, preventing, and controlling environmental hazards that endanger human health and safety.
- Use systems thinking techniques and problem-solving to comprehend and react to the dynamic interactions between sectors, organizations, and public health professionals working to enhance public health.
- Disseminate public health messages to diverse audiences using public health-specific communication methods and social marketing techniques, including professional and technical writing and the use of mass media and electronic technology.
- Recognize and apply the ethical, legal, economic, and regulatory aspects of healthcare and public health policy, along with the roles, influences, and obligations of different branches and agencies of government, in the creation, evaluation, and advocacy of public health policies.
Accelerated MPH Program Option for RUSM Alumni
An accelerated, one-year option for the MPH degree program is available upon approval from Chamberlain, making it an option for RUSM alumni who have a year free before starting residency.
Take the Next Step
Download the MPH Degree Program Application, complete the document, and send to mdmph@rossu.edu.
To learn more about the MPH Program, please call the Chamberlain University Admissions Department at 888-556-8226 or send an email to jarquette@chamberlain.edu.
Frequently Asked Questions
Time to completion varies by student, but students may finish the MPH and MD concurrently in as few as four years. An accelerated option allows students who have already completed their MD to earn an MPH in one year.
An MD-MPH offers students a wide range of career paths within public and private healthcare organizations, state and local government, hospitals, colleges and universities, and more. Specific job titles include: Epidemiologist, Biostatistician, Medical Scientist, Health Education Specialist, and Clinical Researcher, to name a few.