School of Public Health Sciences
In 2010, the University of Waterloo galvanised its commitment to population health and the application of technology to support healthy lifestyles and deliver health services through the creation of Waterloo’s School of Public Health and Health Systems (now School of Public Health Sciences). While the school has at its core a strong agenda of scientific inquiry, it is by definition a professional school with a mandate to educate tomorrow’s leaders in public health and health systems. Three strong professional graduate programs anchor the school – the Master of Public Health, the Master of Health Informatics, and the Master of Health Evaluation.
A commitment to experiential learning
Consistent with the University of Waterloo’s established focus on experiential learning and innovative thinking, a core element in the design of the School of Public Health Sciences was to create a mechanism by which learning moved both into, and out of, the classroom. Our Professional Practice Centre provides a vehicle by which students in our professional graduate programs can tackle interesting problems of direct relevance to our industry and public sector partners.
Our experienced graduate students do this in concert with our professional staff (software architects, software engineers, user experience experts) and highly qualified faculty to deliver tailored solutions to meet the needs identified by our partners. In the process, our partners have the opportunity to contribute to the education and development of Canada’s future digital health professionals.