Designing Healthy Cities

Karen Lee, MD, MHSc, Healthy built environment and social determinants of health specialist

On Campus 20 Hours Registration closed

Registration has closed for this course.

Course Description

Have you ever considered how the structure of your neighborhood, streets and buildings impacts your health?  Recent evidence shows the built environment—our human-made buildings, streets and neighborhoods, and their amenities—influences physical activity and diets in both positive and negative ways which contribute directly to today’s global pandemics like obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, diabetes and cancers, now our leading causes of death and healthcare costs.

This course will explore successful interventions for improving the built environment to address obesity and NCDs. We will look at strategies for implementing these interventions in our own cities, communities, and organizations. We will learn about best practices, challenges, and multidisciplinary problem-solving in a real-world setting through case examples and field site visits.

Competencies

Participants will learn to:

  • identify today’s key epidemics and their risk factors;
  • recognize key built environment factors that impact active living and healthy eating;
  • select examples of successful policy and practice interventions for improving the built environment for physical activity and healthy eating;
  • determine potential strategies for implementing such policy and practice interventions for improving the built environment for physical activity and healthy eating in their own cities, communities, and organizations.

Required knowledge/pre-requisites

Participants should wear comfortable clothing and footwear, as a portion of the course will be dedicated to field and site visits

Course Details

On Campus 20 hours Registration Closed

- Monday, 9:00am-1:00pm
- Tuesday, 9:00am-1:00pm
- Wednesday, 9:00am-1:00pm
- Thursday, 9:00am-1:00pm
- Friday, 9:00am-1:00pm

This class includes a mix of classroom time and excursions into Boston neighborhoods.