Health Care System and Policy Development

The School of Public Health, University of Nairobi (SPH) was established in

September 2010 and was officially launched by the Vice Chancellor on 22^nd February 2011. The forerunner of the School was the Department of Community Health (DCH) which was established in 1967 within then School of Medicine. DCH was a leading public health training centre within the region and trained more than 250 public health professionals over the past 25 years in the Master of Public Health (MPH) programme and other special courses. However, in order for the DCH to deal more effectively with the emerging public health challenges and the high demand for training on public health issues, there was a need to expand its mandate through the establishment of a School of Public Health. With this development, The School now has more autonomy and can engage in collaboration with other institutions to expand its contribution to public health research, training and community health development.

Overview

The School is one of the four constituent schools of the College of Health Sciences. It is located within the College of Health Sciences complex at Kenyatta National Hospital in the capital city, Nairobi. The School has a mandate to deal with the emerging public health challenges, meet the high demand for training on public health issues and to contribute to public health research and community health development.

The School is currently structured into four thematic areas headed by a thematic heads. The thematic areas are as follows:

1. Epidemiology and biostatistics

2. Health care systems and policy development

3. Disease prevention, control and health promotion

4. Community health sciences

The School currently has on board multidisciplinary academic staff drawn from a wide range of public health specializations. These include: clinical sciences, behavioral sciences, public health nutrition, health economics and policy development, health systems management, environmental and occupational health, demography and population studies, epidemiology and biostatistics, among others. The School is currently involved in the training of undergraduate medical students (MBChB) enrolled in the School of Medicine in Community Health Courses through the Clerkship in Community Health. The School continues to offer the Master of Public Health (MPH) programme which was established in 1984. Master of Science in Health Systems Management (MSc HSM) is a new programme that will be offered for the first time starting in September 2013

The School also has a PhD programme that continues to be offered by thesis. The School continues to explore the possibility of including taught causes in research methodology and biostatistics to enhance proposal development and research.

Thematic Units

Link

BIO-MEDICAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY