Public Health

1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

The Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department is one of four key departments of the Fred N. Binka School of Public Health (SPH) located on the Hohoe campus of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) in the Volta Region of Ghana. The department is committed to advancing knowledge and improving health outcomes through innovative research, rigorous training, and impactful community engagement. In this regard, the department seeks to educate and empower the next generation of public health professionals, conduct cutting-edge research, and provide evidence-based solutions to pressing public health challenges both locally and globally. Our faculty and students conduct transformative research that’s cuts across infectious and tropical diseases; non-communicable diseases; climate change and other environmental challenges; disease surveillance and outbreak investigation; statistical modelling for public health decision-making and evaluation of public health interventions and policies. The department also collaborates with health authorities at both the municipal, regional and national levels including international organizations to conduct research and translate research findings into actionable public health programs. We have a team of highly experienced faculty with diverse expertise in epidemiology, biostatistics and environmental health who work to ensure we deliver on our goals.

The department has the following units:

Our undergraduate programmes are:

Our graduate programmes are:

2. Department of Family and Community Health

The Department of Family and Community Health is one of the four academic departments within the Fred N. Binka School of Public Health presently headed by Dr. Faith Agbozo, and supported by ten full-time faculty from Lecturer to Full Professorial ranks. The department has a strong research culture that applies fundamental scientific principles to promote individual, family and community health, focusing on nutrition, diet and diseases, mental health; maternal reproductive and child health, and population health in general. This dynamic, diverse, and broad-based department strives for excellence through leadership to achieve the highest standards of education and research for our range of students.

Currently, the department offers two undergraduate programmes and two postgraduate programmes as listed below.

We also contribute towards the Masters in Public Health programme. In the short to medium term, we envisage developing three postgraduate programmes to complement the existing academic programmes as follows: DrPH in Public Health Nutrition; MPH in Nutrition and Maternal and Child Health and; MSc in Clinical Research (Nutrition Science Option).

The department is committed to positively impacting the health of populations within the communities in the Hohoe Municipality and beyond with special emphasis on vulnerable populations, particularly pregnant women, children under five years, adolescents and the elderly. This we achieve by operationalizing through three units:

3. Department of Health Policy, Planning and Management

The department of Health Policy Planning and Management (HPPM) is one of the four (4) departments of the Fred N. Binka School of Public (FNB-SPH). The FNB-SPH is one of the schools of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS). The main objective of the Department is to build and strengthen capacities in the management and leadership of health systems and the healthcare ecosystem in Ghana and beyond. The Department core mandate is to contribute to the training of students in broad domains of public and health policy design, implementation and evaluation, health sector planning, management and administration for health sector-wide objectives and health system improvements through quality measures. Critically important is students’ exposure to how to effectively design monitoring and evaluation systems within the health sector to improve programme outcomes, both at the micro and macro levels. Students who undertake programmes in the Department also benefit from broad public health competencies in Epidemiology, biostatistics, health promotion among many others.

At the undergraduate level, the Department support other Departments in the School to teach, mentor and train students in the core disciplines in the Department, Health Policy and Systems, Health Economics and Monitoring and Evaluation of Health Programmes. At the postgraduate level, the Department runs programmes in MPH in Monitoring and Evaluation as well as MPH in Health Systems. The Department, at the postgraduate level, aims to equip students with the unique skills and competencies to conduct evidence-based high-quality scholarly research. Areas of major research include health system research, monitoring and evaluation, leadership, and management.

Additionally, the Department runs a short course on Health Administration and Management (HAM), targeting health professionals in health administration and management as well as those who are planning to enter into leadership positions (administrators and managers) within the health sector.

The Department has the following units:

The following masters’ programmes are situated in the department:

4. Department of Population and Behavioural Sciences

The Department of Population and Behavioural Sciences (PBS) is one of the four departments in the Fred N. Binka School of Public Health. It was established to run three programmes:

The department is currently considering running a master’s programme in Health Education

However, we are currently running only the Health Promotion programme, leading to a Bachelor of Public Health (Health Promotion) or a Master of Public Health (Health Promotion).

The department has a staff strength of eight faculty. Regarding teaching, our faculty teach both core and elective courses. The departmental elective courses start from level 300, while the core courses cut across all four levels: thus levels 100 to 4000. So, our faculty teach courses that fall within their competencies, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Besides teaching, our faculty also take part in research (school, department, and individual level) and community services. At the school level, the department contributed immensely and led the CHPS+ and the Yonsei-UHAS projects amongst others. At the departmental level, we are leading a team of researchers at the school to conduct community health needs assessment, specifically within the Afadjato South District of the Volta region, amongst others, while at the individual level, we also conduct research in collaboration or isolation. Two faculty members at the department have currently won research and fellowship grants on COVID-19 vaccine uptake and menstrual hygiene, making the department vibrant on the research front. We are also involved in supervising students in the field when they are doing their vocational training and for their project work.

Students from the department also engage in school and community-based community health promotion and education campaigns. They do these by visiting schools and communities to deliver health talks and teach key health promotion skills.