Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, public health was experiencing a boom, with the number of degrees awarded in this field jumping more than 300% from 1992 to 2016. The pandemic then brought public health into mainstream consciousness and further bolstered interest among professionals who recognized both the importance and influence inherent to working in public health.
“Coming out of this pandemic, there really has been tremendous interest from individuals in the medical community to get more involved,” says Scott Rivkees, associate director of the accelerated master’s of public health (MPH) program at Brown University’s School of Public Health.
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Because doctors are in medical school for four years and then spend several more years in residencies or fellowships, devoting more time to pursuing a master’s of public health is no small task. That’s because a typical program takes two years to complete when attending school full-time.
In response, a growing number of schools—including Brown’s School of Public Health and Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health—are offering accelerated MPH programs for those people with a specialized background. Clocking in at 12 months or less, such programs are primarily intended for students who are in medical school, hold a doctorate degree, or have several years of work experience.
And thanks to this accelerated format, more people may be able to add an MPH to their other educational experience.
“The more people who are in health care who get a public health degree, I think the bigger impact it’s going to make on the overall picture of health care,” says Julianne Parker, associate director of the general public health program at Columbia.
Fortune spoke with Rivkees and Parker about their offerings to find out what prospective students need to know.
The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
A master’s in public health offers a ‘broader lens’ on health care
Fortune: Why is it important for health care professionals to consider a MPH?
Rivkees: One of the things that became very clear during the pandemic is how essential it is for the health care sector—those involved in medicine—to be interacting with public health. Public health is very different than clinical medicine. Clinical medicine typically focuses on an individual. Public health focuses on a population. Its reach is very broad. It involves interacting with the community, with elected officials. Those activities require special skills that one does not typically get in common medical training.
Parker: Our students who want to add on the degree say there’s only so much that they can do working in an individual sort of treatment. There’s so many things that go into helping a patient that requires a broader lens. It gives them more skills to be able to work clinically or to do research or to influence policy or systems.
Is an accelerated MPH program for you?
Who is the right fit?
Rivkees: This accelerated MPH is for individuals who are either in medical school or have advanced training in medicine. It could be for individuals who want to transition into public health to give them the background they need, or to complement their activities, because there are many physicians who want to become more involved in public health.
Parker: Most of the students who decide to go through the accelerated option are folks who are established in their careers already. They’re interested in social determinants or understanding research better from a public health perspective.
But we do occasionally have somebody who has a law degree who wants to add on the MPH. Also folks who are doing social work or an MBA or coming from a business background—it just depends on what they want to do.
What are the qualifications to apply?
Rivkees: We look at the applications of everybody who applies. And we always realize that there are special circumstances. We’ve had applications from individuals who are in veterinary medicine, individuals who have a doctorate degree in pharmaceutical sciences, or they have done two years of medical school.
Let us know: Why are you interested in public health? How is this going to help your career? What kind of impact do you want to have in public health in the future? This is really important information, which can come across in a student’s essay. We also look at letters of recommendations from our applicants. Medical students typically will have letters from some of the other instructors, but if they have worked in departments of health or have done other types of community service, those types of letters are terrific.
Parker: If they’re interested more in a focus track—like health policy and management or epidemiology or population family health—I advise them to take a look at the course directory. That can help guide them to which program they want to apply to.
One of the things that we do pay a lot of attention to is really understanding how the MPH fits into their overall career trajectory. And so the clearer they’re able to articulate their interests in public health, and just making that application strong through their clarity of purpose is really helpful. Along with that, the letters of recommendation really just support that statement.
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