The University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences (SPHIS) has been awarded full accreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH).  With this announcement, the school becomes one of only 40 accredited schools of public health in the nation and the only school that combines the disciplines of public health and information sciences.

“This is an outstanding achievement,” said Larry Cook, UofL’s Executive Vice President for Health Affairs.  “Attaining national accreditation in only five years, and just one year after graduating the first class of Masters of Public Health Students, is a testament to the dedication of Dean Richard Clover and all of the faculty and staff who have worked to make our vision for the school a reality.”

According to the American Public Health Association (APHA), the demand for highly-educated public health professionals has sharply increased in response to the events of September 11, 2001 and other public health emergencies.  Vacancy rates are as high as 20 percent in some state public health agencies and turnover rates have reached 14 percent in some parts of the nation.

“This is a critical time for the field of public health, which must adapt to the challenges of frequent natural disasters, emerging infectious diseases, occupational health challenges, epidemiological surveillance, environmental contamination and an increasing focus on health behaviors and how they impact our citizens,” said Clover.

“We are proud to join this elite group of schools that are preparing the experts who will tackle these problems and who are applying state-of-the-art information sciences tools to track and analyze threats to public health,” said Clover.

SPHIS offers professional master degrees in public health, biostatistics-decision science, clinical investigation sciences and epidemiology and a certificate in clinical investigation sciences.  PhD programs are offered in the fields of biostatistics-decision science, epidemiology, environmental health, health management and health promotion.  Dual degrees are available in medicine and clinical investigation sciences (MD-MSc) and mathematics and biostatistics-decision science (PhD-MSc).