Building diverse leadership in an academic medical center: The ACCLAIM program.

As healthcare systems become more complex, medical education needs to adapt in many ways. There is a growing need for more formal leadership learning for healthcare providers, including greater attention to health disparities. An important challenge in addressing health disparities is ensuring inclusive excellence in the leadership of healthcare systems and medical education.

Value of a small control group for estimating intervention effectiveness: results from simulations of immunization effectiveness studies.

Aim: To improve evidence for public health practice, the conduct of effectiveness studies by practitioners is needed and may be stimulated if knowledge that smaller than usual samples may provide the same reliability of intervention effect size as larger samples.

Materials & Methods: We examined reliability of intervention effect using computerized simulations of 2000 hypothetical immunization effectiveness studies from an actual study population and by small (30 and 60) and larger (100 and 200) control groups compared with an intervention group of 200 participants.

Results & Conclusion: Across simulated studies, the mean intervention effect (14%) and effect sizes were equivalent regardless of control group size and equal to the actual study effect.

Competency-based preparedness training for public health practitioners.

The bioterrorism preparedness training needs of the public health workforce have been described in several studies, assessments, and surveys. To meet these needs, the North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness (NCCPHP) and the Public Health Leadership Program (PHLP) at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health developed a new distance learning course, Introduction to Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Emergencies. After a review of assessment data to identify training needs, we conducted a literature review of methodology and concluded that a distance learning course would be the best approach.

Examining the impact of a distance education MPH program: a one-year follow-up survey of graduates.

This article addresses the critical issue of measuring impact of a distance education Master of Public Health degree program on public health practitioners. It is based on an online survey of the 49 graduates of the Public Health Leadership Program at the School of Public Health of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The survey was carried out 1-year postgraduation and had a 73% response rate.

An interdisciplinary MPH via distance learning: meeting the educational needs of practitioners.

This article describes a distance learning master of public health program that prepares students to lead programs and organizations. Evaluation showed that the curriculum, format, and teaching methods were accessible, affordable, acceptable, and appropriate for the working professional, and equivalent to residential master's programs aimed at experienced professionals. Students interacted with professors and other learners using the World Wide Web, weekly videoconferences, and face-to-face meetings.