Introduction to Complex Systems Approaches in Public Health
Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences at University of Copenhagen
This course is free of charge for PhD students at Danish universities (except Copenhagen Business School), and for PhD Students from NorDoc member faculties. All other participants must pay the course fee.
Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student at a Danish university, you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. This also applies to PhD students from NorDoc member faculties. After the enrollment deadline, available seats will be allocated to applicants on the waiting list.
Learning objectives
A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:
1. Identify characteristics of complexity in public health problems that justify the use of a systems thinking approach.
2. Apply the Health Complexity Framework for generating knowledge on complex health problems.
3. Understand when systems methods such as causal loop diagrams and systems dynamics models may be useful and what these methods entail.
4. Understand how to explore patterns in complex health problems using explainable machine learning.
5. Develop an outline of a research grant proposal that applies complex systems thinking to address a specific problem.
Content
Many public health problems show features of complex systems, characterized by feedback mechanisms and complex interactions among various factors and individuals across biological and social scales. Prominent examples of such complex public health problems include health inequality, obesity, multi-morbidity, and infectious disease epidemics. To comprehend and address such problems, complex systems thinking is emerging as a new paradigm in public health research.
In this course, PhD students will develop a foundational understanding of complex systems approaches in the field of public health. The course emphasizes the practical application of the Health Complexity Framework, which serves as a fundamental tool for conducting complexity research. The primary focus of the course will be on understanding complex public health problems while also expanding into a brief introduction to its application to intervention research.
By embracing a complex systems thinking approach and examining patterns along with their underlying mechanisms and dynamics, students will acquire skills to analyze complex problems. They will use a systematic framework to generate interdisciplinary knowledge regarding these complexities. The course provides students with an introduction to various methodologies for exploring patterns in health data, including the utilization of explainable artificial intelligence techniques. Moreover, students will be familiarized with systems methods, such as causal loop diagrams, designed to capture the dynamic mechanisms that drive public health issues. They will also gain some exposure to simulation modeling using system dynamics, which enable an exploration of the dynamics of these problems and simulations of potential interventions. Ultimately, students will leverage their newly acquired knowledge to develop an outline of a research grant proposal that addresses a specific public health problem of their choosing.
Participants
This course is aimed at a maximum of 20 PhD students in public health and epidemiology without requiring further qualifications.
Relevance to graduate programs
The course is relevant to PhD students from the following graduate programs at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences, UCPH:
- Public Health and Epidemiology
- Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
- All graduate programmes
Language
English
Form
This course comprises nine 3-hour sessions, consisting of group lectures, workshops, and an individual research project centered around the development of a research proposal. Finally, the students will present their research proposals to their peers.
Course director
Naja Hulvej Rod, Professor, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, nahuro@sund.ku.dk
Teachers
Harry Rutter, Professor, Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath
Morten Hulvej Rod, Professor, National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark
Naja Hulvej Rod, Professor, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen
Jeroen Uleman, Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen
Adrian Zucco, Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen
Dates
19 May – 23 May 2025 - 9-16
Course location
University of Copenhagen (TBD)
Registration
Please register before 01 March 2025.
Expected frequency
Yearly.
Seats to PhD students from other Danish universities will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and according to the applicable rules.
Applications from other participants will be considered after the last day of enrolment.
Note: All applicants are asked to submit invoice details in case of no-show, late cancellation or obligation to pay the course fee (typically non-PhD students). If you are a PhD student, your participation in the course must be in agreement with your principal supervisor.