CEPH Foundational Competencies & Track Competencies
Foundational Competencies
Evidence-Based Approaches to Public Health
1. Apply epidemiological methods to settings and situations in public health practice
2. Select quantitative and qualitative data collection methods appropriate for a given public health context
3. Analyze quantitative and qualitative data using biostatistics, informatics, computer-based programming, and software, as appropriate
4. Interpret results of data analysis for public health research, policy, or practice Planning & Management to Promote Health
Public Health & Health Care Systems
5. Compare the organization, structure, and function of health care, public health, and regulatory systems across national and international settings
6. Discuss the means by which structural bias, social inequities, and racism undermine health and create challenges to achieving health equity at organizational, community, and systemic levels
7. Assess population needs, assets, and capacities that affect communities’ health
8. Apply awareness of cultural values and practices to the design, implementation, or critique of public health policies or programs
9. Design a population-based policy, program, project, or intervention
10. Explain basic principles and tools of budget and resource management
11. Select methods to evaluate public health programs
Policy in Public Health
12. Discuss the policy-making process, including the roles of ethics and evidence
13. Propose strategies to identify relevant communities and individuals and build coalitions and partnerships for influencing public health outcomes
14. Advocate for political, social, or economic policies and programs that will improve health in diverse populations
15. Evaluate policies for their impact on public health and health equity
Leadership
16. Apply leadership and/or management principles to address a relevant issue
17. Apply negotiation and mediation skills to address organizational or community challenges
Communication
18. Select communication strategies for different audiences and sectors
19. Communicate audience-appropriate public health content, both in writing and through oral presentation to a non-academic, non-peer audience with attention to factors such as literacy and health literacy
20. Describe the importance of cultural humility in communicating public health content
Interprofessional and/or Intersectoral Practice
21. Integrate perspectives from other sectors and/or professions to promote and advance population health
Systems Thinking
22. Apply a systems thinking tool to visually represent a public health issue in a format other than standard narrative
Generalist Track Competencies
Generalist Track Unique Competencies
5170-1. Analyze how geography and health are related using geographic information systems (GIS).
5170-2. Apply geographic information systems (GIS) to a particular public health problem.
5190-1. Identify mitigation strategies for regional, national, and global diseases.
5190-2. Assess the ways in which disparities affect the health of a population.
5350-1. Assess the ways in which laws, policies, or programs affect health disparities.
5350-2. Critically assess research, policies, or programs on topic related to health inequity.
5350-3. Identify and analyze systemic drivers of poor health and inequity.
5550-1. Analyze public health strategies for improving mental health on the basis of equity, quality, and evidence of effectiveness.
5550-2. Design policy recommendations on prevention of mental health challenges or promote mental health.
5700-1. Apply a life-course and socioeconomical framework to evaluate strategies to improve adolescent and young adult health.
5700-2. Develop evidence-based recommendations to improve outcomes within a particular area of adolescent and young adult health.
5750-1. Analyze data related to intimate partner violence and produce a visualization of the data.
5750-2. Critically evaluate literature on a specific aspect of intimate partner violence.
5750-3. Develop clear oral and written communications on a specific aspect of intimate partner violence.
5800-1. Apply knowledge and awareness of community needs to develop recommendations for effective community-level public health interventions or local policy changes.
6040-1. Develop explanatory theories to answer research questions based on analysis of qualitative data.
6040-2. Analyze qualitative data such as interview transcripts and observational fieldnotes using coding and memoing.
6040-3. Collect rich, detailed qualitative data through effective interviewing and observation techniques.
6050-1. Critically evaluate the strengths and limitations of epidemiological studies.
6070-1. Design written and oral advocacy products to promote specific public health policies.
6070-2. Evaluate public health policies on the bases of health equity, impact, feasibility, cost, and political acceptability.
6070-3. Use evidence to develop policy solutions to solve systemic drivers of poor health and inequity.
6080-1. Critically evaluate effective health-related behavior change strategies.
6100-1. Create a deterministic model of the transmission and control of an infectious disease, including the model equations, the formula for reproduction ratio, and derivation step.
6100-2. Describe the use of agent-based models to evaluate public health interventions for the control of infectious diseases.
6150-1. Synthesize literature within a specific area of injury & violence to assess its consequences to individuals, families, and communities.
6150-2. Evaluate interventions, programs, or policies to prevent injury and violence in a specific area, with specific attention to initiatives tailored to the subgroups most at risk.
6210-1. Apply skills in evaluation design and implementation to evaluate public health programs.
6210-2. Develop a budget for a public health program.
6250-1. Apply public health and design thinking to evaluate a city hazard mitigation plan.
6250-2. Develop and prioritize recommendations to improve city hazard mitigation planning and climate resilience evaluate a city hazard mitigation plan.
6370-1. Develop written and oral policy communications to influence decision-makers.
6420-1. Evaluate public health law and policy to determine whether specific laws and policies are based on science or misinformation.
6420-2. Through written and oral communication, promote the use of scientific evidence in public health law and policy.
6500-1. Evaluate health communication interventions with consideration of health communications theories or strength of evidence.
6500-2. Apply a rights-based approach and critically examine one’s own power, ethics, and professional role to assess health communication for a range of communities around the globe.
Generalist Track Additional Competencies
A. Critically synthesize research and practice literature for a selected public health topic [PUBH 5190, 6040, 6050, 6060, 6080, 6100, 6150, 6370].
B. Assess epidemiological study types using the hierarchy of evidence [PUBH 6050, 6060, 6080].
C. Assess the reliability and validity of research methods [PUBH 6060, 6080].
D. Analyze the geographic and demographic distribution of diseases in the U.S. or globally [PUBH 5190, 6050, 6100].
E. Evaluate the role of government & financing in shaping policy and health outcomes [PUBH 5190, 5800].
F. Determine factors influencing successful policy implementation [PUBH 6060, 6370].
Global Health Track Competencies
1. Evaluate interventions, programs, policies, or health care systems in international settings or global health context
2. Analyze the burden of disease in a country or region outside the US
3. Examine global health issues through the lens of the social determinants of health or human rights principles
4. Apply the principles of cultural competence when discussing public health in a global or international setting
5. Analyze the roles, relationships, and resources of the entities influencing global health
6. Analyze core global human rights principles
One Health Track Competencies
1. Evaluate and integrate literature from across different disciplines to develop a thorough understanding of a One Health problem or topic
2. Prepare a study proposal (i.e. grant) that reflects your expertise and incorporates the tenets of One Health (i.e. the COHERE guidelines)
3. Design the ideal team of individual experts to investigate a One Health issue with a transdisciplinary approach
4. Critically evaluate scientific research on a food or nutrition policy.
5. Describe the complex factors (e.g. psychological, political, cultural, or economic) that influence what we eat
6. Identify the critical drivers of disease emergence and possible impacts such emergence has on human, animal and environmental health
7. Demonstrate the role of local, state, national and international agencies in controlling transboundary diseases of one-health importance
8. Describe the range of effects that animal diseases (including those that are not zoonotic) can have on human health and confidence in government and agricultural systems
9. Analyze the cultural, economic, health and welfare drivers of diverse stakeholders in response to an animal disease that has environmental and potentially human health consequences
10. Evaluate the role of livestock (poultry, dairy, beef, porcine, aquaculture) in sustainable food systems
11. Describe the metrics associated with animal agriculture and climate change
Epidemiology Track Competencies
1. Demonstrate the ability to understand advanced epidemiologic study design for longitudinal and clustered investigations, self-controlled design, quasi-experimental design, and target trials
2. Critically conduct evaluation of bias from measurement error and misclassification and understand the value of sensitivity analysis and quantitative bias analysis
3. Effectively use advanced data analysis skills to conduct survival analysis, longitudinal and clustered modeling, mediation, and propensity score analysis
4. Demonstrate ability to retrieve and clean data, perform exploratory and regression analyses, build models to answer epidemiologic questions, and visualize the outputs using R, RStudio, and R Markdown
5. Conduct reproducible data analysis using supervised and unsupervised machine learning methods for epidemiologic, genetic or omics data types