Notes

Last summer, I was fortunate enough to have an internship at the UH cancer center, and I was placed in the epidemiology program. I had first been exposed to epidemiology as a senior in high school in my AP biology class. In college, my microbiology and immunology courses also brought up how epidemiology and public health played an important role in our everyday life. It's thanks to these interactions that I decided to pursue my MPH in epidemiology. In Dr. Grandinetti's lecture, he also brought to attention just what exactly epidemiology is and what it takes into account. While in my internship, I learned about how communities are surveyed, the rules about getting permission, and how important statistical analysis can be. Dr. Grandinetti's lecture touched on all of these points, and made it very clear what exactly epidemiology entails. I feel like many people just believe it focuses on how the disease is caused or spread, when in fact it also takes into account maintaining health through prevention.

On another note, Dr. Yontz mentioned that many people do not know exactly what Public Health entails. Personally, I have had a difficult time explaining what public health is without going too into depth about it. But Dr. Yontz was able to give a clear and concise definition that I will be able to use in the future. It was also mentioned today just how integrated public health is in our everyday lives. There are many things we do that we may not realize play a role in the health of ourselves and the community. During my internship at UHCC, we learned about an application being used to track a population's diet. Each person used an application on their phone that worked in conjunction with a colorful tablet. Together, this allowed the app to figure out the portion size of the food, as well as what the food was. As I mentioned, aspects of public health are everywhere,