Summer at PHX

PHX Perspectives | July 30th, 2021


For many people, summer is a time to take a break from classes, relax or get real-world experience at internships, practicums, and jobs. Families and friends will gather, people will travel, and many businesses will reopen. At Population Health Exchange (PHX), summer is also the perfect time for updating skills, deepening knowledge, and thoughtfully advancing our education through programs and courses.

If the last year of the global COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that the time for public health is now! Through the 2021 PHX Summer Institute, PHX supported the academic and professional development of hundreds of public health professionals. Our programs included Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Public Health, Essentials of Biostatistics with SAS JMP, Lean Management in Healthcare, Data to Dashboards, and Essentials of Population Health Research. Each program was taught by renowned BUSPH faculty, and participants from diverse backgrounds within the public health workforce enrolled.

According to Patty, an Oncology Customer Manager at Merck and a student in the new Lean Management PHX course, “Professor Jonathan Modest was an amazing instructor, encouraging students to participate. His passion in sharing the knowledge made the course a very enjoyable learning experience. Real life Quality Improvement examples from his professional career experience brought the application to life for us.”

Brian Wood, Associate Professor of Medicine at Washington University, was disappointed the program ended. “The flexibility for watching the online course materials on my own schedule was huge and was much appreciated,” Wood said. “The online videos and resources were easy to use and very informative and complemented the book chapters well. Lisa Sullivan and TA were very responsive and helpful.”

“I was impressed by how well Kevin Lane was able to teach use of ArcGIS software in an online format to various levels of comfort among the students,” said Jennifer Ross, the Coordinator of Public and Community Health Programs at the University of Oklahoma.

Sherry Roberts, Sr. Director of Data Management at Agios Pharmaceuticals “was able to take many of the things that [she] was learning and apply them to [her] work immediately. [She is] much more efficient with spreadsheets now and understand some of the best practices to present data more effectively as data dashboards.” Roberts also shared that the Instructor “Elizabeth Lewis was very accessible and willing to help.”

With another Summer Institute about to conclude, PHX is now gearing up for the January 2022 virtual Winter Institute. To learn more about future learning opportunities, stay connected by signing up for our newsletter. Explore our website to learn about various resources and opportunities to join us on campus or virtually this winter and next summer!