What You'll Learn
Classroom training, applied learning, and community based professional services in these domains:
- Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods
- Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation
- Grant Funding and Sponsored Projects
Population Health Management is the professional field that puts health research into practice, improving the well-being of communities.
In June of 2014, Oregon Tech launched the nation’s first Bachelor’s training program in Population Health Management (PHM). Created in response to changes in healthcare legislation, and in support of the new landscape of health in the United States, the program provides rigorous training in the research and development needed to address key population health issues. Oregon Tech’s Population Health Management Program has an academic foundation in medical sociology, which is the formal investigation of social and structural determinants of health. The social science approach to population health signifies an incorporation of the cultural, political, and environmental aspects of health.
Interdisciplinary, Applied Education
The PHM program curriculum is interdisciplinary, and students benefit from training in psychology, health informatics, management, marketing, ethics, and health sciences. The cornerstone of the PHM program includes applied courses in which students concurrently learn skills in the classroom while directly applying these skills in a community based project.
Contact
Dr. Chapman is Chair of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department and Director of the Center for Advancing Interdisciplinary Research on the Environment (AIRE). Since coming to Oregon Tech in 2016, Dr. Chapman has taught in the Medical Sociology minor and the B.S. Population Health Management program. The program provides students with a health-specific sociological education that is applicable to the fields of public health and health care. He teaches courses in medical sociology, research methods, and social inequality.
Dr. Chapman has conducted a range of research on the role of social factors in physical and mental health conditions at both community- and population-levels. His specific interests are in aging, chronic disease, environmental problems and health care, health care professionals, educational disparities, and health behaviors.
Recently, he has worked on projects studying a range of topics, including: impacts of wildfires on hospital systems, health effects of prescribed burns, patients who recurrently miss medical appointments, head and neck cancer screenings in dental clinics, suicide screenings in primary care, and mental health among first responders. His work is featured in many outlets, including Public Health and Practice, Journal of Primary Care and Community Health, Journal of Applied Social Science, AIR, Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, Rural Sociology, among others. When he is not teaching and conducting research, Kyle enjoys exploring the attractions of the Pacific Northwest with his family.
Career Paths
Featured Courses
With study areas ranging from health research to care coordination and outreach, the hands-on courses at Oregon Tech will help you prepare for a career in the healthcare industry. Some courses that a PHM student at Oregon Tech might take include:
Community Health Program Planning
This course prepares students to identify, develop, and coordinate interventions in a community health setting to target chronic disease risk reduction. Students will gain an understanding of chronic disease epidemiology and best practices in public health programming and gain skills in program planning methods.
Global Population Health
This course is an introduction to measurement, methodology and theories of population change. The course includes an overview of historical and future trends in fertility, mortality, morbidity and aging both in the U.S. and internationally. The relationship of population to society is emphasized, and you will be encouraged to develop creative solutions to current and future health, social and environmental issues.
Community Health Grant Writing
This course prepares students to develop grant proposals to secure funding for health promotion initiatives in a community health setting. Students develop skills to assess the health of target populations, identify pressing health needs, select appropriate evidence based programs that address these needs, and prepare information in a grant proposal format.