2020-50

Motion Introduced by:  Curriculum and Academic Programs Committee

Date of First Reading:    March 2, 2020

Date of Second Reading: March 30, 2020

Title of Motion: Request from the College of Health Solutions – for the establishment of an undergraduate degree – BS in Population Health

Action Requested: This curricular proposal has received all college, school, unit and university administrative approvals, and is being presented to the Senate for review and voting decision.  

Rationale: The Institute of Medicine has identified Population Health as a domain encompassing both public health and health care delivery, two educational domains central to CHS. Population health is an emerging field built on the premise that optimizing health requires an understanding of complex systems, including the roles of various stakeholders (e.g., health care organizations, governments, businesses, non-profits, etc). As a result, population health requires training in an array of disciplines fundamental to CHS, including biomedical informatics, economics, social determinants of health, program and community assessment, program planning and evaluation, health care delivery, and health policy. However, there are few academic programs nationally that integrate health care delivery and public health domains to provide training for jobs in population health, even though the job market for this degree has increased 86% in the last 2 years.

This program capitalizes on a multidisciplinary approach that features experiential learning. The College of Health Solutions is uniquely positioned to develop and implement this degree.