This program is intended to provide students special expertise in public health as related to pharmacotherapy and health promotion, disease prevention, and medication safety. There are many areas where public health and pharmacy have interests and commitments that are related. Among these are: spread and treatment of disease, community health, immunology; bioterrorism, terrorism, and preparedness; genetics; insurance; managed care; family and juvenile health; and protection of special populations.

Graduates of the PharmD/MPH program will be able to:

• Serve as a public health professional having strong preparation and competency to deal with pharmacotherapy issues
• Serve as a pharmacist specializing in health care issues in a public health setting
• Serve in management positions in a health care pharmacy
• Be a drug use review specialist in a managed care program, or
• Serve as a community pharmacist with involvement in community-based prevention programs

Graduates who possess the dual degree will have employment opportunities in:

• Public and private hospitals and clinics and health care providers
• Private practice
• Insurance and managed care organizations
• Local, county, state, or federal government
• Public health governmental agencies such as CDC, HRSA, NIH, FDA
• Colleges and universities

Prerequisite

A minimum of 120 hours of undergraduate course work toward an undergraduate degree is required. Students must be admitted to the UI PharmD degree program to be admitted to the combined degree program. The cumulative grade-point average should be a minimum of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. One semester each of college algebra and biology is required for admission to the PharmD/MPH degree program. Candidates may be reviewed for each degree concurrently but the condition of acceptance into the PharmD must be made before final acceptance into the MPH program. For information on admission to the PharmD program, please see http://grad.admissions.uiowa.edu/academics/doctor-pharmacy-pharmd.

The pharmacy subprogram core requires a minimum of 9 s.h. of graduate credit selected in consultation with an advisor. Students must identify five competencies that expand on foundational knowledge and skills and complete corresponding coursework for the selected competencies as detailed in the Practicing Professionals Subprogram Core in this section of the catalog. Courses must be approved by the student’s advisor. Under certain circumstances, a single course may apply to two competency areas. More than 9 s.h. of subprogram coursework may be needed to fulfill all five competencies.

The following is a sample plan of study based on being a full-time student. Please work with your advisor to choose a plan that works best for you.

All of the following courses count toward the PharmD degree; only 12 s.h. from these count toward the MPH degree.