MD/MPH Coursework
Southern Illinois University offers a unique MD/MPH dual degree through a collaboration between SIU School of Medicine and SIU Carbondale College of Health and Human Sciences.
Students who have been accepted to medical school at SIU School of Medicine, and have not yet started medical school, are eligible to apply for the MD/MPH program. Apply to medical school at SIU School of Medicine.
The MD/MPH program is a five-year program beginning in Carbondale.
Students accepted to the program spend their first year completing MPH coursework in Carbondale. Students start medical school the second year. The fifth year (MS4), the students take MPH specific electives and complete a practicum.
Each MD/MPH student is required to complete a total of 15 hours of electives (including the practicum) while on the Springfield campus during MS4. Each SIU School of Medicine elective is worth an equivalent number of credit hours for each week in length. Thus, a 1-week elective is worth 1 credit hour. The following electives are divided into “Required” and “Optional,” from which the student may choose to fulfill their 15 total hours.
*Optional courses may change without notice. Contact Carol Coniglio with any questions about course availability.
MD/MPH Required Coursework
Master of Public Health (MPH) students will demonstrate competency attainment through applied practice experiences. All MPH students are required to complete a 240-hour experience with a community-based component. The Applied Practice Experience (APE) provides a practical experience in a public health setting where students apply skills and knowledge they gained during didactic courses to attain at least five competencies. Dual degree students have opportunities to integrate and apply their learning from both degree programs through applied practice experiences. Students meet the APE requirements by supporting the Program's mission.
During the final semester(s) of study, students are required to complete an integrative learning experience (ILE) that demonstrates synthesis of foundational and program competencies. ILEs require two products:
- a high-quality written product
- a presentation on the ILE.
This course will include didactic presentations and clinical epidemiology problem sets to provide students with a well-rounded set of activities designed to present the fundamentals of clinical epidemiology. Topics include: introduction to epidemiology; basic measures and disease occurrence; medical surveillance, disease outbreaks and role of the physician in epidemic detection and response; testing and screening technologies; clinical trials; epidemiological study designs; and genetics. From this course, the student will gain a working knowledge of epidemiological principles, how they are used to study populations for questions of clinical significance, and how these principles may be applied to patient care.
This course is designed to be an overview of the more recent trends in public health practice and research. There will be a combination of selected in-depth readings and discussion on 3-5 specific topics during the week. Discussions will complement the readings by providing more depth and background and allowing the exploration of potential solutions, whether at the individual physician or national policy level. Potential topics include obesity and chronic disease care and management; terrorism preparedness and response; infectious and foodborne disease outbreak response; vaccination strategies, needs and policies; racial and other minority health disparities; environmental determinants of health; social and cultural determinants of health; health promotion versus health mandates. Readings and discussions will be complemented by the student performing a more in-depth review of a topic and developing a proposed intervention. This will be presented to the elective faculty and students.
This course is designed to be an overview of the opportunities and challenges associated with leadership in the field of population health. Students will become familiar with the workings of national and global agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), the Public Health Service (PHS), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations (UN). The role of physicians in these and other agencies will be explored, as well as the more general/specific roles of health officers, epidemiologists, health scientists, health experts, advocacy champions, and program administrators.
MD/MPH Optional Coursework
Racial and ethnic health inequities have long been documented in the United States. Research shows that differences in type and quality of healthcare received by minority and non-minority populations exist and that they occur in the context of broader historic and contemporary social & economic inequities. This elective will help students understand how the social drivers of health impact clinical care delivery and the ways that population health strategies inform practice transformation.
Though chemical and radiological events differ in terms of delivery, physiological effects, medical treatment options, and responses, physicians are integral partners from the local to national levels. This elective will provide an overview of biological, chemical, and radiological agents; how these agents may be disseminated and their physiologic effects; treatment strategies; surveillance activities at the state and national levels; preparedness activities to include infrastructure-boosting cooperative agreements to state health departments and health care surge capacities; command and control and lines of authority as they pertain to event responses; and an overview of planning and performing exercises.
Cancer health disparities are the disproportionate cancer burdens experienced by different population groups as defined by a group’s gender, geographic location, race/ethnicity, income, or other characteristics. This course will include didactic sessions and readings to provide students with a foundational understanding of the multilevel determinants of cancer health disparities across the cancer control continuum from prevention to survivorship. Multilevel determinants range from distal factors, like public policy, to proximal factors, such as allostatic load, and genetic factors that can affect cancer outcomes. Topics will include an introduction to cancer health disparities models and frameworks; an overview of the multilevel factors affecting cancer health disparities; populations affected by disparities; components of the cancer continuum; study designs and interventions used to address disparities; and applications for clinical practice.
Successful child health outcomes are influenced by a myriad of factors including, but not limited to, social determinants of health, parenting, trauma, media, and even the historical context that they live in. Children’s Health and Development examines how different factors influence children’s outcomes and translates related theories to real-life situations through case studies and real observations of children.
This one-week course provides an overview of health policy and its challenges with regard to government relations. Learners will explore how government plays a role in the implementation, progress, sustainability, oversight, and evaluations of policy as it relates to healthcare. Students will have opportunities to engage with legislators, advocates, regulators and policymakers at the state capital and compose a policy paper on an issue of their choosing.
Drawing on research and literature from the sociology of food, this course will introduce students to aspects surrounding food that go beyond eating as a means of sustenance. Social meanings associated with food and what role food and eating play in relationships will be examined. Students will work to answer questions such as: “What meanings are associated with sharing, providing, and preparing foods?”
Year 1 Resource Sessions
CRR Unit
This resource session is designed to introduce students to the health challenges of communities in the SIU School of Medicine service region using US health data made available by various government and healthcare organizations. Discussion includes a comparison of health challenges in the US to other countries and the differences between urban and rural communities. Advances in public health systems over the last 100 years will be presented, as well as the challenges of physicians in addressing health issues of their patients.
This resource session introduces student to the basic concepts of epidemiology, study design, and biostatistics. Students will learn about various epidemiological measures and its implication in clinical practice.
Students will explore different study designs and their use in epidemiology. In this lecture they will be able to understand the difference between descriptive and analytical study designs, and differentiate between experimental and observational studies, learn basic concepts about various observational studies and measures associated with each design.
NMB Unit
This second session on study design will explain descriptive and experimental study designs. Students will be able to understand the basics of randomized controlled study design and other study designs.
This lecture will explore how to analyze and draw meaningful conclusions from data using statistical methods. Key principles such as descriptive vs. inferential statistics, measures of central tendency and variability, and types of data will be discussed. Additionally, we will discuss the framework of hypothesis testing, including null and alternative hypotheses, types of errors (Type I & II), p-values, confidence intervals, and statistical significance.
ERG Unit
This lecture will differentiate between screening tests, which identify potential disease in asymptomatic individuals, and diagnostic tests, which confirm disease in symptomatic individuals or those with a positive screening result. Key concepts such as sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, likelihood ratios, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves will be discussed. The lecture will also explore the importance of balancing false positives and false negatives in medical decision-making.
This resource session is designed to explore the US health care delivery systems with various payment models, discuss the core functions of public health along with the four domains of chronic disease prevention, and define population health and health equity.
Year 2 Resource Sessions
HII Unit
This resource session provides an understanding on the importance of population science and policy in the everyday practice of physicians in the United States. Students will discuss a recent health crisis by applying aspects of the three divisions of Population Science and Policy.
This lecture will focus on statistical methods, including parametric tests and non-parametric tests, as well as methods for comparing categorical data such as the Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test. We will discuss the basics of correlation and regression analyses to examine relationships between variables, and survival analysis, with emphasis on selecting the appropriate test based on data type and study design.
This resource session presents examples of complex ethical issues encountered in medical settings and provides an understanding of the guidelines for advance health directives with examples of where they may be difficult to undertake.
CRR Unit
This resource session explores the multi-faceted role of physicians as advocates for patients, communities, and policy. The role of medical students as advocates now and the impact they will have on population health through advocacy as future physician is discussed.
This resource session will explore the various types of bias that can impact the validity and reliability of clinical research findings. Key categories of bias, including selection bias (e.g., sampling bias, loss to follow-up), information bias (e.g., recall bias, measurement bias), and confounding (when an extraneous variable distorts the true association between exposure and outcome) will be discussed. Strategies to minimize bias, such as proper study design, randomization, blinding, and statistical adjustments, will also be discussed.
This resource session helps students gain an understanding of health care costs, health outcomes in the United States, and the US health care delivery system and payment models. The session also discusses case-based application of disease prevention and explores health care delivery and public policy solutions.
This resource session provides examples of medical errors and the strategies on how to recognize and avoid them. This session also introduces students to best practices for safe delivery of care and quality improvement in medical settings. Several scenarios are presented for student discussion.
NMB Unit
This resource session provides information on a public health crisis, providing specific information regarding the opioid epidemic and statistics of opioid misuse. Research conducted by SIU Medicine’s Department of Population Science and Policy regarding the epidemic is also presented.
This resource session will explore the key types of surveillance, including passive, active, sentinel, and syndromic surveillance, along with their applications in infectious disease control. We will also cover outbreak investigation, including the steps in identifying, confirming, and controlling an outbreak. Topics such as defining cases, calculating attack rates, establishing epidemiologic links, and identifying sources of infection through descriptive, analytical, and field epidemiologic methods will be highlighted.
The impact of social and structural determinants of health on people with serious mental illness (SMI) along with the disparate health outcomes they experience will be discussed. Special emphasis to understanding how physicians in non-psychiatric specialties can improve the outcomes for patients with mental illness will be given.
ERG Unit
This resource session explores the various definitions of “rural” and healthcare delivery between rural and urban settings, focusing on the health disparities experienced by rural populations.
This resource session presents inter-professional practices and the role of a physician on a collaborative team providing health care.
We will be discussing questions on epidemiology, biostatistics, and study design. This resource session will review main topics that are tested on the USMLE Step 1 exam with examples.
Year 4 Electives
Racial and ethnic health inequities have long been documented in the United States. Research shows that differences in type and quality of healthcare received by minority and non-minority populations exist and that they occur in the context of broader historic and contemporary social & economic inequities. This elective will help students understand how the social drivers of health impact clinical care delivery and the ways that population health strategies inform practice transformation.
Cancer health disparities are the disproportionate cancer burdens experienced by different population groups as defined by a group’s gender, geographic location, race/ethnicity, income, or other characteristics. This course will include didactic sessions and readings to provide students with a foundational understanding of the multilevel determinants of cancer health disparities across the cancer control continuum from prevention to survivorship. Multilevel determinants range from distal factors, like public policy, to proximal factors, such as allostatic load, and genetic factors that can affect cancer outcomes. Topics will include an introduction to cancer health disparities models and frameworks; an overview of the multilevel factors affecting cancer health disparities; populations affected by disparities; components of the cancer continuum; study designs and interventions used to address disparities; and applications for clinical practice.
This course will include didactic presentations and clinical epidemiology problem sets to provide students with a well-rounded set of activities designed to present the fundamentals of clinical epidemiology. Topics include an introduction to epidemiology; basic measures and disease occurrence; medical surveillance, disease outbreaks, and the role of the physician in epidemic detection and responses; testing and screening technologies; clinical trials; epidemiological study designs; and genetics. From this course, students will gain a working knowledge of epidemiological principles, how they are used to study populations for questions of clinical significance, and how these principles may be applied to patient care.
This course is designed to be an overview of the more recent trends in public health practices and research. There will be a combination of selected in-depth readings and discussion on 3-5 specific topics during the week. Potential topics include obesity and chronic disease care and management; terrorism preparedness and responses; infectious and foodborne disease outbreak responses; vaccination strategies, needs, and policies; racial and other minority health disparities; environmental determinants of health; social and cultural determinants of health; and health promotion versus health mandates.
This one-week course provides an overview of health policy and its challenges with regard to government relations. Learners will explore how the government plays a role in the implementation, progress, sustainability, oversight, and evaluations of policy as it relates to healthcare. Students will have opportunities to engage with legislators, advocates, regulators, and policymakers at the state capital and compose a policy paper on an issue of their choosing.
The elective will familiarize upper-level medical students at SIU School of Medicine with legal concepts that will affect their practice of medicine. We will cover not only the legal principles at play but also explore the ways physicians can best avoid legal liability.
This elective course will include structured lectures, class discussion, and homework. Students will attend brief lectures, work on examples in class, review the manuscript and write a protocol. The course will review topics such as, but not limited to:
- Disease measures and determinants of disease, Introduction to Study Design, Cohort Studies, Case Control Studies, Randomized Control Trials and Other Study Designs, Confounding in clinical studies
- Basics of Components of a protocol - Introduction, innovation, significance, Objective, specific aims and study design
- Manuscript - Writing introduction, methods, results and discussion sections of a manuscript, and a scientific review of a journal
This course is designed to be an overview of the opportunities and challenges associated with leadership in the field of population health. Students will become familiar with the workings of national and global agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), the Public Health Service (PHS), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations (UN). The role of physicians in these and other agencies will be explored, as well as the more general/specific roles of health officers, epidemiologists, health scientists, health experts, advocacy champions, and program administrators.
PSP in Clerkship Rotations
In Y3, the Education team works to integrate Health Systems Science (HSS) topics into clinical clerkships to increase recognition of HSS curriculum in clinical settings, thus helping students make connections between preclinical and clinical experiences. This work also aims to train residents and faculty on how to recognize and teach HSS in clinical settings with specialty-specific examples.
*For more details on resource sessions and courses, contact Carol Coniglio.