"I would like to recommend PHDA courses to others. I believe the program is very practical and useful to those working in the public health field. It provides a good opportunity for the development of a future career plan.
I learned how to use several popular software programs such as SAS, R, ArcGIS and Mplus. All of them are very helpful. The PHDA 06 course about Health Services Program Monitoring and Evaluation helped me evaluate my work program. "
PHDA testimonials
PHDA Overall program/course experience
PHDA full testimonial
- How did you learn about the program and what motivated you to enroll?
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I was browsing for some relevant programs that would complement my current job as an epidemiologist. This one caught my eye (and I went to UVic in the past) – the courses looked good, particularly the GIS ones which I wanted to learn as it hadn’t been part of my education up to that point.
- Tell us about your course experience. What skills did you develop and which courses provided the greatest benefit to you?
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It was really good. The coursework was comprehensive but not too time consuming. The GIS courses were fantastic and provided great information, and the other courses were also relevant to my work (the program evaluation course and the working with admin data course).
- How have you been able to (or how do you plan to) apply your new skills in your work/research?
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Yes – I signed up to learn GIS, and I have been able to use some of those skills in my job.
- What do you think were the strengths of this program? Please provide examples.
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I liked the method of instruction – videos that walked you through the steps of an assignment accompanied by PDF’s, which I thought helped me learn efficiently.
- Would you recommend this program to others? If so, what recommendations/suggestions would you give those interested in applying to this program?
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Yes – in fact I have… I recommended this to colleague of mine at another health unit in Ontario who recently got hired as an Epidemiologist. She hadn’t had much education in the area and was looking for good programs so I mentioned this one, and she signed up.
- Any additional comments you would like to add about the program or ways we can improve the educational experience?
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Great program overall – all very relevant to my profession.
PHDA 03 Population Health and Geographical Information Systems
"Both the PHDA 03 and PHDA 04 courses have made me confident working in ArcGIS, and applying principles of GIS/mapping to population health data and working on spatial analyses. In particular, what has been most helpful about these courses is applying the background theory to surveillance and research questions and walking through the analysis from start to finish, including interpretation of results."
PHDA 03 Population Health and Geographical Information Systems
"The courses that provided me the greatest benefit included the Population Health and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and Spatial Epidemiology and Outbreak Detection.
Using the GIS and SAS skills that I learned from the PHDA program, I was able to create a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) layer using GIS software, which showed peak greenness for the entire country over a ten-year period. Using this data and other administrative databases a team of researchers led by Dr. Dan Crouse and myself, conducted a research study that looked at how living by residential greenspace can impact longevity."
PHDA 03 Population Health and Geographical Information Systems
"The PHDA 03 course involved a lot of work, but was structured in a way that it was easy to work through each module. The instructor provided step by step instructions for each module about how to use ArcGIS. By the end of the course, I went from someone with zero experience in GIS to someone who can understand how to interpret maps, basic tools in ArcGIS, and how to apply GIS to public health issues."
University of British Columbia, 201-2206 East Mall, Vancouver BC V6T 1Z3
Health Data Research Network Canada (HDRN) member
International Population Data Linkage Network (IPDLN) member
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