College Makes Commitment to Public and Community Health

The Medical College of Wisconsin will commit more than $7.5 million from its Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin fund to expand and develop new public health graduate degree programs. This commitment, approved by the Board of Trustees, is the largest ever of funding support for public health education in Milwaukee.

The funds will be used to launch a new doctoral degree (PhD) program in public and community health in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), and to expand the Medical College's existing Masters of Public Health degree (MPH) program to provide enrollment opportunities for health professionals statewide. Both the MPH and PhD programs will be offered through the Medical College's Department of Population Health.

"The Medical College of Wisconsin is developing new and expanded graduate programs in public health to address our state's need for an expanded public health workforce," said T. Michael Bolger, JD, President and CEO of the Medical College. "This significant funding support for public health education underscores the Medical College's belief that public health and medicine should be integrated, not treated as separate disciplines. This integration - with the shared goal of preventing, detecting, treating, and curing disease and injury - is at the core of our academic public health programs and community collaborations."

Peter Layde, MD, MSc, Professor and Interim Chairman of Population Health, will provide overall leadership for both the development of the PhD program and the expansion of the MPH program. Jane M. Kotchen, MD, MPH, Professor and Director of Epidemiology in the Department of Population Health, will serve as interim director of the expanded MPH program.

A steering committee of Medical College and UWM leaders has been working on the development of the PhD program for the past two years. The steering committee members from the Medical College are Dr. Layde and Cheryl Maurana, PhD, Senior Associate Dean for Public and Community Health, and, from UWM, Randall S. Lambrecht, PhD, Dean of Health Sciences, and Sally Lundeen, PhD, Dean of Nursing. An advisory committee made up of 11 local and statewide leaders has also contributed its expertise.

"The Wisconsin Public Health Association applauds the Medical College of Wisconsin for its substantial investment in education directed at improving the competency of Wisconsin's public health workforce," said Sue Kunferman, president of the Wisconsin Public Health Association. "In an era of emerging public health threats, advanced training for the public health workforce will assure healthy communities and the protection of the public's health. The proposed revision to the existing Masters of Public Health degree will make quality education available throughout the state. In addition, the new PhD program developed in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will provide advanced public health training and create opportunities for applied research focusing on important public health issues facing our state."

Kunferman added, "The Wisconsin Public Health Association looks forward to working with the Medical College of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to help create quality education programs that will assure a competent and effective public health workforce."

"The challenge we face is two-fold," said Dr. Maurana, "improving health in Milwaukee and throughout Wisconsin and most effectively educating a public health workforce in our state. By collaborating with UWM, UW-Madison, public health departments, community organizations, the Wisconsin Public Health Association and other entities to address both issues, we will effect sustained health improvements. Integrating medicine and public health is a key component of this approach."

The Medical College committed $4,778,113 over the next five years to develop a doctoral program (PhD) in Public and Community Health in collaboration with UWM. The doctoral program will enhance the breadth and depth of research expertise in public and community health with an emphasis on training the next generation of public and community health educators and researchers. The collaborative effort will draw on faculty expertise from several departments at the Medical College, including Pediatrics, Family and Community Medicine, Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, as well as UWM's College of Health Sciences and College of Nursing.

The Medical College will also recruit new faculty members with expertise in public health disciplines including social and behavioral sciences, health policy, epidemiology, and biostatistics. The Medical College and UWM hope to admit the first group of five to 10 doctoral students in August, 2008.

The Medical College will also invest $2,761,897 over the next five years to expand its Masters of Public Health (MPH) degree program. The expanded MPH program will be targeted to a broader audience of prospective students and incorporate state-of-the-art distance learning technology.

Over the past 20 years, 564 physicians have received MPH degrees from the Medical College. The Medical College's current MPH program, focused on public health training for physicians, offers specialization in general preventive medicine and public health, and in occupational medicine. The expanded MPH program will include health professionals who work in local public health and non-profit/for-profit agencies.

By offering a distance learning component to the program, health care professionals in outlying areas of Wisconsin will have access to the MPH degree program.

The number of students admitted annually to the expanded MPH program is still being determined. The expanded program will begin in September, 2007.

"The new PhD program and the expanded MPH program will be important components of the Medical College's efforts to help address the public health workforce concerns identified in Healthiest Wisconsin 2010, the State of Wisconsin's Health Plan," said Dr. Layde.

Michael J. Dunn, MD, the Medical College's Executive Vice President and Dean, said, "The Medical College of Wisconsin awards education and research project funding from the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin endowment to leverage our faculty's academic expertise and to create educational and research opportunities that will provide positive benefits for Wisconsin's citizens for decades to come."

Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin is the Medical College's public and community health endowment created through funds received by the Medical College from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield United of Wisconsin conversion to a publicly-held company.

MCW Health News presents up-to-date information on patient care and medical research by the physicians of the Medical College of Wisconsin.