Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health

The Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (SSHSPH) was established in October 2011 as Singapore’s first and only full-fledged national public health tertiary education institution, building upon more than 60 years of experience in research, training and practice in epidemiology and public health. The School is also a member of the National University Health System (NUHS).

The School is designed around domains which build upon strengths of the School and recognise opportunities in: Epidemiology; Biostatistics & Modelling; and Health Systems & Behavioural Sciences. The School aims to continually foster healthier communities in Singapore and the region, and impact public health programmes and policies through its robust educational programmes and translational cross-disciplinary research work on cohort studies and life course epidemiology, infectious disease research, health technology assessments, health promotion, workplace safety and health, health systems evaluation and health services research. An interdisciplinary approach, augmented by rigorous training, applicable research and regional partnerships, places SSHSPH at the forefront of public health knowledge discovery and practice in Asia.

Today, SSHSPH continues to offer the MPH degree to student cohorts from multiple disciplines. In August 2012, the Master of Science (MSc) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programmes were launched to build upon SSHSPH’s strong research base. For undergraduate teaching, SSHSPH faculty teach in the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine curriculum, exposing medical students to the complexity and value of community and public health through student-driven Community Health Projects (CHP). The launch of the Minor in Public Health in AY2013/2014 provided the opportunity for all other NUS undergraduate students to be exposed to public health issues and its determinants combined with approaches and methods targeted at prevention or alleviation.

=Undergraduate education=

Programmes offered
SSHSPH offers a Minor in Public Health for all undergraduate students. The school is also actively involved in undergraduate medical training in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

Minor in Public Health
The Minor in Public Health is offered to all NUS undergraduates who want to develop the knowledge, skills and approaches needed to understand and address today’s public health challenges in Singapore, Asia and the world.

The Minor is designed to empower students to improve the health of not only individuals but that of entire communities, and prepare students for a career in an organisation engaged in Public Health work.

Curriculum for Medical Undergraduates
The school anchors two longitudinal tracks in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine medical undergraduate curriculum: 1) Medicine & Society 2) Information Literacy, Critical Thinking and Evidence Based Medicine. The broad objectives of these tracks are to promote health and prevent disease at both the individual and community level and to critically appraise and apply scientific medical evidence.

Undergraduate medical students from Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine will apply coursework from these two tracks in a culminating Community Health Project (CHP), where groups of students will design and carry out research projects in the community under the supervision of SSHSPH faculty.

The Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health graduate research programmes are research-intensive programmes that emphasise both the mastery of research skills and acquisition of core knowledge in the student’s area of interest. Students may choose to receive advanced training in one of three domains of Public Health research: Biostatistics & Modelling, Epidemiology, and Health Systems and Behavioural Sciences.

=Graduate education=

Graduate Diploma in Applied Epidemiology
=See also=

=References=