Master of Applied Science in Spatial Analysis for Public Health

A fully online, part-time degree offered by the No. 1 school of public health in the country.

The Master of Applied Science in Spatial Analysis for Public Health is a fully online degree program offered by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The curriculum prepares students to effectively collect, map and interpret geographic information to test and refine hypotheses to answer a set of questions within the public health sector. View the curriculum.

Advantages of this fully online graduate program:

• Led by renowned experts who are shaping the field through research and application
• Online delivery gives flexibility and accessibility to students around the world
• Competitive price point for tuition

 

Location information, now routinely collected with health data and also obtainable from advancing technologies, is providing a gateway for researchers and practitioners to incorporate the power of geography into public health. Maps have become a powerful and popular mechanism for public health research and practice, not only for conveying information and synthesizing data from multiple sources, but for leading to new and novel directions for analyzing and interpreting public health data.

What is Spatial Analysis and how is it different than GIS?

There are many definitions of spatial analysis; broadly, it is any use or interpretation of geographic information. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a component of spatial analysis, but it is more primarily focused on the mapping software as a tool for integrating, manipulating, and displaying spatial data. This program in Spatial Analysis covers a more encompassing set of skills, introducing and reinforcing the spatial science paradigm – a unifying comprehensive approach that includes components of spatial data, Geographic Information Systems and spatial statistics.

Spatial Data	Keeping pace with  advancing  technologies to obtain, collect and create spatial information relevant to a specific application
GIS	Mapping software for integrating, manipulating and displaying spatial data, allowing simultaneous visualization of multiple layers of spatial information
Spatial Statistics	Tools to go beyond the map. Employing statistical techniques to describe, analyze and interpret layers of mapped data

 

The Value of a Unifying Comprehensive Paradigm

Spatial analysis is an emerging field, with advancing technologies and evolving applications that are vast and paramount to addressing public health issues. The carefully sequenced courses of the MAS in Spatial Analysis for Public Health meet the increasing demand for this expertise through the comprehensive spatial science paradigm, which brings together components of spatial data, GIS and spatial statistics. Building on foundations in epidemiology and biostatistics, graduates will be able to effectively design and conduct public health-related spatial analysis by applying knowledge and tools learned in the program.

Applications of spatial analysis are impacting public health both locally and globally. Some examples:

• Characterizing environmental conditions such as traffic, poverty, climate and water quality
• Characterizing accessibility to care, healthy/unhealthy food outlets, and pollution sources
• Providing tools for improved air pollution exposure assessment
• Linking characterizations of the environment to changes in health
• Identifying and evaluating suspected cancer clusters
• Mapping the risk of malaria or other infectious diseases

 

 

Get In Touch

Request more information or call us at 844-379-1319 to speak with an admissions officer.

OPAL Program Office

• Elizabeth Golub, PhD, MEd
  Director, Online Programs for Applied Learning
  Email: egolub@jhu.edu 
  Phone: (410) 502-2502
• Frank Curriero, PhD
  Director, MAS and Certificate programs in Spatial Analysis for Public Health
  Email: fcurriero@jhu.edu  
  Phone: (410) 614-5817

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Students should be aware of additional state-specific information for online programs.

* Total tuition using rates for the 2019-2020 academic year, inclusive of the OPAL Scholarship.