PHDA testimonials

"PHDA 03 and 04 provided useful tools for me. I had always wanted to learn to use ArcGIS software to explore health data, and have both a geography and clinical background, so PHDA 03 and PHDA 04 were especially interesting."

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"I took the PHDA 03 course to update my data analysis and GIS skills so that I could apply them to my current position as senior policy analyst in environmental health. I have a number of years of policy analysis experience, which I felt would be complemented by focused studies on the application of data analysis and GIS to population and public health policy questions. The course provided a comprehensive overview of how GIS can be used to investigate various population and public health questions including: mapping administrative data; use of spatial targeting, tailoring and generating to inform health policy development; estimating access to health care services; chronic and communicable disease surveillance; and environmental health and exposure assessment. The flexibility of distance learning meant that it was possible to complete work at my own pace and schedule. It was also helpful to learn from students in different locations, who worked in related fields but had different strengths, skills and perspectives.

I would highly recommend this course and the PHDA program to my colleagues. It’s a well-structured and organized program and provides a good theoretical and practical approach to population health data analysis."

"I think the highly trained, expert instructors, who are approachable and provide excellent feedback are a major strength. Certainly, the small class sizes allow for that individualized feedback and a continual dialogue with instructors in the discussion boards as well. I think the Moodle course site is very easy to use, and in general, the courses were very well organized.

Through the program, I came to learn about the enormous benefits of using already-collected administrative health data, and the process for doing so. I think my skills with SAS and ArcGIS will be the most useful to me, but the larger concepts of data integrity, (PHDA 01), what type of analysis is used in certain situations (PHDA 02), and considerations when doing spatial analysis (PHDA 04) are immensely important as well."

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"The PHDA 06 evaluation course was the most useful to me as it is something I'd like to incorporate into my future research much more."

"The Health Evaluation and Program Monitoring (PHDA 06) course really helped me land a job after graduation. PHDA 06 was different from the other PHDA courses. It felt a bit like a satellite course in the program as it included a health evaluation project rather than data analysis lab work. I learned a lot from the peer review process we used. I have applied evaluation skills that I learned from this course, including logic models, evaluation methodology, gantt charts and interview guides."

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