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MHS Undergraduate Course on US Public Health Ethics and Policy

Dr. Elizabeth Heitman, Associate Professor of Medicine, came to Vanderbilt in 2003. In addition to her appointments in the Department of Medicine and Vanderbilt’s Center for Biomedical Ethics, Dr. Heitman also serves and a faculty affiliate for the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society.

Currently, Dr. Heitman teaches MHS 203, US Public Health Ethics and Policy (offered Fall 2009). This course was previously taught as an MHS Special Topics course, but is now part of the MHS core curriculum (effective Fall 2009). This course is a systematic overview of the major ethical issues in public health practice and policy. It examines the history and ethical commitments of public health and specific ethical problems in epidemiology and the definition of health problems, health promotion, and disease prevention, occupational health, risk, assessment and environmental hazards, research with human beings, and health disparities. Dr. Heitman’s course builds a solid foundation for undergraduate students seeking to gain a better understanding of the relationship between ethics and public health in the United States.

For more information about Dr. Elizabeth Heitman’s research and teaching interests, publications, and course offerings, please visit https://medschool.mc.vanderbilt.edu/cbmes/whoweare.php