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Specialization Diploma in Public Health

personal sanitario andando por un pasillo. Salud Pública

Specialization Diploma in Public Health

UPF-BSMPostgraduate coursesSpecialization Diploma in Public Health -incompany

The Specialization Diploma in Public Health is the reference training for professionals who need a complete overview of public health for the development of their professional career.

Next edition
Classes start18 September, 2024
Classes end04 July, 2025
Program ends11 July, 2025
ModalityOnline
LanguageSpanish
ECTS credits30
Price3300 €

The Specialization Diploma in Public Health, created in collaboration with the Agencia de Salud Pública de Catalunya and the Agencia de Salud Pública de Barcelona, aims to provide health professionals with skills in the basic disciplines of Public Health and to introduce them to the essential tools used for the interpretation, control and evaluation of health problems.

This programme provides participants with the conceptual bases and techniques of analysis and intervention specific to Public Health, so that health and life sciences professionals can develop their role more effectively, especially in the field of the promotion and protection and of the health, prevention of disease, taking into account the epidemiology and the socio-political and economic context of their environment.

Throughout the program you will learn to identify new health risks and address them from a holistic and professional perspective. You will lean about the resources for making policies for the health promotion and control and prevention of diseases and health problems more effective, you will learn to recognize their determining aspects, and highlight the health inequalities of the population. You will gain experience and you will know how to act in the face of alerts, outbreaks, and emergencies. You will also acquire the basic skills to carry out epidemiological research and discover how to promote the community health from a health and equity perspective.

Upon completion, you will be awarded a double degree: the Specialization Diploma in Public Health from UPF and the Diploma in Public Health, from the Escuela Nacional de Sanidad, I Instituto de Salud Carlos III.

Why choose this program

01

Gain access to vacant positions in Spanish public institutions

The program qualifies you to be able to work as a public health professional to the public administrations and, in addition, you will obtain the Diploma in Public Health, from the Escuela Nacional de Salud, I Institut de Salud Carlos III, highly valued for accessing numerous career opportunities and places, and for transfers.

02

Get a global overview

The course credits provide the necessary training to understand the basics of public health from a rigorous perspective, looking at the main areas of interest in public health. It also incorporates the latest innovations to update education and mobility between disciplines for professionals who require it.

03

Train yourself in skills and attitudes

Its study plan is oriented not only to knowing, but also to knowing how (skills and experience) and knowing how to be (attitudes), which is reflected in the activities, and in the creation of spaces for opinion and discussion which can be used for an exchange of opinions and views that enrich the health training subjects.

04

Learn from industry professionals

The teaching team is made up of professionals and experts in the field of public health, who develop their work and their knowledge at both the local and regional levels.

Who is it for?

The Specialization Diploma in Public Health is aimed at professionals and graduates in the field of health (medicine, nursing, biology, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, etc.), environmental sciences, statistics, economics, sociology, chemistry, and other university graduates who work or wish to work in the near future in the field of public health or primary health care.

Curriculum

The course is organized into 10 didactic units of practical orientation, in which learning will be built from the various activities directly linked to professional transfer.

Along with the activities, debate spaces and documentation for each unit available in the eCampus, a wide range of teaching materials will be made available to students that will facilitate general understanding, the execution of the tasks of the various units of the program, and the acquisition of key competencies to access multiple professional opportunities.

Unit 1

Identify the main components of the organization and financing of public systems and their relationship with public health, of which it is a part.

Unit 2

Understand the concepts and foundations of statistics applied to health sciences and train all those professionals in the field of health management and epidemiology to carry out research work, as well as critically assess the quantitative methodology of the articles published in this speciality.

Unit 3

Know what epidemiology is and learn the basic measures of frequency, association, and impact (both its basic calculation and its interpretation) for health problems, and the design of basic epidemiological studies.

Unit 4

Acquire the necessary knowledge for the development of a research project, which constitutes the instrument that allows the connection of research ideas with the practical undertaking of the study. It includes the completion of the end of Diploma project.

Unit 5

Through a transdisciplinary perspective, the course intends to critically examine the main fundamental scientific, social, and political factors in the generation of health and existing inequalities, and to review all the elements in relation to mobility injuries, work accidents, occupational diseases and work disabilities, and risks related to work from a holistic and professional perspective, which covers the occupational (proximal and distal), social and political determinants of the person's environment.

Unit 6

Understand the conceptual and instrumental methods that allow the objectives of the surveillance of the population and its health situation to be achieved.

Unit 7

Review the principles and conceptual bases of the epidemiological control of communicable diseases and analyse the control of various communicable diseases, with special emphasis on problems related to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, epidemic outbreaks, sexually transmitted infections, and other emerging infectious processes which are linked to the growing mobility of people.

Unit 8

Acquire knowledge and develop the capacity for basic analysis both of emerging problems and crises, as well as in planning preventive medicine plans and programs.

Unit 9

Integrate the conceptual and theoretical bases on which prevention and health promotion are based and train students to design, analyse, and evaluate preventive and promotional interventions in the sector.

Unit 10

Understand, through problem-based learning, the concepts of community, community health and community health care, from the point of view of health services or from society, emphasizing the promotion of joint programs of primary care services, preventive medicine, and public health.

Final Project

The practical component of the Specialization Diploma in Public Health recommends carrying out a practical assignment whose objective is for the student to acquire experience in research methodology and in the practical application of this research in the professional framework of health management. Likewise, to obtain the Diploma in Public Health, accredited by the National School of Health, it is mandatory to complete and present the equivalent credits of the course for this practical work, to which it is estimated that 75 hours of personal work should be dedicated.

The main objective of the work is to get the students to apply all the knowledge acquired during the course by carrying out work related to public health and preferably on a topic that is part of their usual professional task. Thus, the student can choose a work topic from the proposals made by the coordinator of the diploma and their teachers but can also propose a topic from their workplace.

Qualification obtained

Once you have passed the program, you will obtain an electronic degree (e-Título) for the Diploma de Especialización en Salud Pública, issued by Pompeu Fabra University. You will also be awarded a diploma in Public Health from the Escuela Nacional de Sanidad, Instituto de Salud Carlos III.

The e-Título is an authentic digital degree, issued in pdf format and electronically signed, with the same legal validity as if it were in paper format.

Faculty

The Specialization Diploma in Public Health has teachers who are excellent professionals with long health experience in local and regional public management services. Come and get to know them.

Academic directors

Coordinator

Collaborating faculty

  • Montserrat Bartroli
    Head of Departament de Prevenció i Atenció a les Drogodependències. Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona.
    Associate Professor at Pompeu Fabra University.
    Doctor in Public Health. MSc in Public Health and MSc in Clinical Psychology and Behavioural Medicine. Postgraduate in Emotional Education. Published various articles in national and international journals. Developed various applied research studies in recent years, mainly in the field of drug dependence prevention and care.
  • Lluís Camprubí
    Senior expert in Public Health for the Barcelona Council Public Health Service.
    MSc in Public Health. He also worked for the Barcelona Public Health Agency, the Catalan Health and Social Care Consortium and under delegation from the Government Ministry of Health.
  • Catrina Clotas
    Senior Technician of the Departament de Prevenció i Atenció a les Drogodependències. Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona. Master's Degree in Public Health.
  • Imma Cortés
    Head of the Health and Work Service of the Barcelona Public Health Agency.
    Graduate in Medicine and Surgery, specialist in Preventive Medicine and Public Health. Senior Technician in Occupational Risk Prevention, specialist in Ergonomics and Psychosociology. Master's degree in Public Health and Biomedical Research Methodology. Master's Degree in Occupational Risk Prevention. PhD in Biomedical Research Methodology and Public Health.
  • Ferran Daban
    Head of the Servicio de Salut i Barris. Departament de Promoció de la Salut. Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona. Master's Degree in Public Health. Doctor in Public Health.
  • Albert Dalmau
    Researcher at the Catalan Healthcare System Observatory at the Catalan Agency for Assessment and Quality.
    MSc in Public Health. He has also worked with the Barcelona Public Health Agency (ASPB), the Foundation University Institute for Primary Healthcare Research (IDIAPJGol), the Research Centre in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) and the Global Health Institute (ISGlobal).
  • Lluís Forcadell
    Graduate in Biomedicine and Master in Public Health. PhD in Public Health and Health Education. Associate Professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
  • Pere Godoy
    Head of the Epidemiological Surveillance and Response to Public Health Emergencies Service in Lleida.
    Full Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Lleida.
    Degree in Medicine from the University of Barcelona. Director of the Epidemiological Bulletin of Catalonia (BEC). President of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology and coordinator of the Program for the Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases (PREVICET) at the Carlos III Health Institute CIBER for Epidemiology and Public Health.
  • Mònica Guxens
    Specialist in Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Master in Public Health from the UPF and PhD in Biomedical Research and Public Health from the UAB. Research Professor at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal).
  • Angelina González
    Coordinator of Community Health programs in the Department of Health’s Sub-directorate in Health Promotion.
    Associate Professor at Pompeu Fabra University.
    Degree in Biomedicine. MSc in Public Health and Secretary for the Health Impact Assessment workgroup, the Public Health Society of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands and the Health Assets group of the Community Health Alliance.
  • Mercè Gotsens
    Expert for the Barcelona Public Health Agency Information Systems Service
    Degree in Biomedicine. MSc in Public Health. Collaborator on various national and European research projects with various articles published in renowned scientific journals.
  • Xavier Llebaria
    Deputy Director of Public Health at the Department of Health’s Secretary of Public Health
    Associate Professor at Pompeu Fabra University.
    MSc in Public Administration Management from ESADE. Former Managing Director of the Health Protection Agency (now known as the Catalan Public Health Agency) and director of the Catalan Food Safety Agency (both belonging to the Generalitat of Catalonia). Director of Barcelona Public Health Agency from 2013 to 2016.
  • Jacobo Mendioroz
    Specialist in Preventive Medicine and Public Health. Master's Degree in Public Health from the Pompeu Fabra University. He worked as a researcher at the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), as part of the CIBERER network. He has also worked in primary care, in the Territorial Management of Central Catalonia, as head of the Research Support Unit, as part of the IDIAP Jordi Gol network. He was appointed Director of the coordination of the response to COVID19 of the Department of Health during the pandemic and is currently Deputy Director General of Surveillance and Response to Public Health Emergencies at the Public Health Agency of Catalonia.
  • Maribel Pasarín
    Director, Direcció de Programes i Projectes Estratègics (DIPPES), Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona (ASPB).Associate Professor at Pompeu Fabra University
    PhD in Public Health. Her main areas of interest are analysing populational health and its determinants; social inequalities in health; community initiatives for improving health; evaluating primary healthcare; and health promotion.
  • Josep Lluís de Peray
    Consultant in Primary Healthcare, Community Health and Public Health.
    Degree in Medicine from the University of Barcelona. He also worked on the reform to public health as a coordinator for the creation of the Catalan Public Health Agency.
  • Joan Pau Millet
    Specialist in Family and Community Medicine since 2002 and PhD in Public Health and Biomedical Research Methodology since 2012. He also holds a Master in Tropical Medicine and International Health (University of Barcelona 2003) and a Master in Public Health (Pompeu Fabra University 2006). She currently works as a senior technician in the Epidemiology Service of the Barcelona Public Health Agency (ASPB) and is responsible for the city's tuberculosis programme. He combines his activity with the medical co-direction of Serveis Clínics (www.serveisclinics.com), a social and health centre of reference in Catalonia in the care of patients with any type of tuberculosis, including multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. He has been a member of the Tuberculosis Research Unit (UITB) since 2006 and worked as Tuberculosis Clinical Trials Coordinator for the Tuberculosis Trials Consortium (TBTC) 2009-2017, an agency of the CDC in Atlanta (USA). Previously, he has also worked as a medical assistant and emergency physician in Sant Cugat (2002-2003), Badalona (2005) and as an assistant emergency physician at the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS) (2007-2014). He has worked as a doctor with Médecins Sans Frontières in the DR Congo (2004) and in India with the Vicente Ferrer Foundation (2005).
  • Glòria Pérez
    Head of Information Systems at the Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health at the Barcelona Public Health Agency
    Associate Professor at Pompeu Fabra University
    PhD in Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology. Leader and participant in various national and European research projects. Main research focus on social and economic inequalities in sexual and reproductive health.
  • Lluís Picart
    Head of the Department of Health’s Veterinary service, Official Food Control and Exports.
    Postgraduate in Veterinary Public Health, Food Safety and Public Health. Former head of the Veterinary Public Health service and also the department of Food Safety. Former head of the Health Protection Agency for the region of Girona (now known as the Catalan Public Health Agency). Former head of Health Protection at the Catalan Public Health Agency (2013-2015).
  • Vanessa Puig
    Specialist at the Servei de Salut i barris del Departament de Promoció de la Salut de l’Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona.
    PhD in Biomedicine. Participant in the RecerCaixa research project on the impact of employment insertion programs on health and quality of life for the unemployed. Part of the European project evaluating the Impact of Structural Policies on Health Inequalities and various research projects carried out by the UPF Research Group on Health Inequalities, Environment and Employment Conditions (GREDS-EMCONET) and the Interface Demography group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
  • Josep Roma
    Head of the Accreditation Service and Professional Development at the General Directorate for Planning and Research of the Department of Health
    Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona
    Degree in Medicine from the University of Barcelona. MSc in Health Professions Education from the University of Maastricht. Diploma in Hospital Management from ESADE and diploma in Epidemiology from the Université de Paris VI. Responsible for the Training Service at the Generalitat of Catalonia’s Institute of Health Studies from 1990 to 2000.
  • Michael Silva
    PhD in Biomedicine from the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) at the Centre for Research in Occupational Health - Master in Occupational Health and Safety, Master in Environmental Management in Industry. Since 2008 he has been a lecturer in the areas of research and occupational health. Member of the technical committee of the Ibero-American Observatory for Safety and Health at Work. His lines of research focus mainly on public health, social inequalities and occupational epidemiology.

 

Methodology

At the UPF Barcelona School of Management we are committed to a flexible and dynamic online model of education, which aims to place the participant at the centre of the process so that they are the owner of their professional learning process.

To facilitate day-to-day management and the achievement of your academic goals, the program is structured into subjects, with which you will acquire knowledge, and instrumental and aptitude skills.

All this, while having 24/7 access to the virtual environment so that you can organize your study without schedules and at your own pace. With this modality, you can combine it with your work and personal life, making the most of the time you have for it.

01

Interactive teaching materials

Various materials and formats will make your experience of health training more motivating: videos, case studies, content maps, and downloadable resources. Designed and updated periodically by professionals and experts in health problems and epidemiology, they provide you with the latest knowledge, skills, and tools to take your career to the next level.

02

Active and collaborative learning

Participation and discussion with your classmates and teachers are essential for the collaborative learning process. We will provide you with various management tools such as the Discussion Forum, where you can propose new topics for debate, comment on and answer questions presented by the teacher or give feedback to interesting comments.

03

Streaming sessions with experts

We offer videoconference sessions with the expert teacher or special guests, so that you can ask questions, discuss your learning and connect in real time as if you were all in the same place. In order to be flexible with our courses, we record the teaching sessions so that you can consult them later if you have not been able to connect.

04

Personalized support

You will have the support of the expert tutor, who will guide you through each didactic unit; the help of the coordinator and the program manager for the delivery of activities, qualifications, management of procedures, or access to services, and the guidance of the career advisor in the improvement of your personal brand and the search for professional opportunities.

Tools

The learning process is characterized by its flexibility, since, in the virtual learning environment, the structure of the school calendar and the diversity of multimedia resources which are made available to the student allows them to acquire knowledge in a self-regulated manner.

The support of the teaching staff and interaction with classmates is carried out by making use of a wide variety of communication channels that facilitate proximity and didactic dialogue. 

 

Professional Future

The program has been designed, from its first course, to orient itself in the acquisition of the practical skills necessary for the professional practice of public health and to opt for multiple professional opportunities. In this sense, it has focused on professionals who require training that allows them to acquire knowledge about the nature of public health for the development of their profession.

Student profile

The program has been designed, from its first course, to orient itself in the acquisition of the practical skills necessary for the professional practice of health management and to opt for multiple professional opportunities. In this sense, it has focused on professionals who require training that allows them to acquire knowledge about the nature of public health for the development of their profession.

Career opportunities

The program course offers different professional opportunities, all related to the field of public health, whether as a manager, technician, or specialist.

In addition, the Specialization Diploma in Public Health has a natural continuity in the Master in Public Health organized by the UPF and UAB universities, with which it is closely linked.

  • Technicians in public health of public administrations.
  • Specialists in pharmaceutical, biotechnological, food and environmental companies.
  • Health and social service managers, public and private: public health, hospitals, pharmacy, epidemiology, primary care, social services, preventive medicine, etc.
  • Continuation of studies in the field of research in public health, preventive medicine, health promotion, clinical medicine, and environment.

Grants, scholarships and financing

Scholarships

Consorci de Salut i Social de Catalunya (CSC)

The Consorci de Salut i Social de Catalunya (CSC) awards an annual grant to students taking the Specialisation Diploma in Public Health. The grant, which covers two thirds (66%) of the tuition fees, is awarded through a public call for applications in which all those enrolled in the programme can participate. Specific information on this scholarship is available on the CSC website:

Learn more

Grants and discounts

Catalan Public Administration

Discount for employees of the Administración Pública catalana

Learn more
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