Conceptual & historical foundations
Lessons 01 — 02L · 01
Conceptualizing Health, Illness & DiseaseFrom Hippocratic humors to germ theory; biomedical, biopsychosocial, and salutogenic models; WHO 1948, Lalonde, Alma-Ata, the Ottawa Charter; Indigenous holistic frameworks and cultural safety.
Open module
L · 02
The Rise of Public HealthFrom Graunt and the London Bills of Mortality (1662) to Snow, Chadwick, and the founding of WHO, CDC, and PHAC; the major standing studies — Framingham, Whitehall, NHANES, CCHS, CLSA.
Open module
The body and its vulnerabilities
Lessons 03 — 07L · 03
Infectious Disease, Sanitation & HygieneThe germ theory revolution (Pasteur, Koch, Lister, Semmelweis), the sanitary revolution, vaccination from Jenner to mRNA, smallpox eradication, modern pandemics, and the slow-motion crisis of antimicrobial resistance.
Open module
L · 04
Nutrition, Physical Activity & SleepLind's 1747 scurvy trial, Goldberger's pellagra investigations, vitamin discoveries, the Seven Countries Study, the obesity emergence, Morris's bus drivers, REM sleep, and circadian biology.
Open module
L · 05
Sexual & Reproductive HealthMaternal mortality history and the contemporary US paradox, the birth control movement and the Pill, Tuskegee and the Belmont Report, the HIV/AIDS social history through to U=U.
Open module
L · 06
Human Development & the Life CourseLife-course epidemiology, the Barker hypothesis and the Dutch Hunger Winter cohort, the ACE Study, healthy aging research, the CLSA, and the contested 'Blue Zones' framework.
Open module
L · 07
Genetics, Genomics & HealthFrom Mendel to the Human Genome Project; the dark history of eugenics (Alberta and BC sterilization acts); Mendelian vs. polygenic disease, newborn screening, precision medicine, epigenetics, and CRISPR.
Open module
Behavior, environment, work
Lessons 08 — 10L · 08
Health Behaviors, Mental Health & Social InfluenceTobacco as the paradigm case (Doll & Hill, the 1964 Surgeon General's Report), addiction science and the opioid crisis, deinstitutionalization, social-network effects, and loneliness as a public health concern.
Open module
L · 09
Environmental Health — Indoor, Built, NaturalFrom the 1952 London Fog through PM2.5 epidemiology and contemporary wildfire smoke; radon, asbestos, lead, mold; Walkerton and Flint; the built environment; climate change as a public health emergency.
Open module
L · 10
Occupational Health & Worker SafetyRamazzini's 1700 founding text, Pott's chimney sweeps, asbestos and Selikoff, the Radium Girls, OSHA and WorkSafeBC; modern issues — burnout, moral injury, gig work, shift work as a probable carcinogen.
Open module
Structure and integration
Lessons 11 — 12L · 11
Social, Economic & Political DeterminantsThe Black Report and Whitehall studies, the WHO Commission on Social Determinants, racism as a public health issue, colonialism and Indigenous health in Canada, the TRC Calls to Action, and Canadian Medicare.
Open module
L · 12
Disability, Diversity & Integrating the FoundationsMedical, social, and biopsychosocial/ICF models of disability; the 1977 Section 504 sit-ins, ADA, CRPD, Accessible Canada Act; long COVID, MAID, and the course synthesis preparing students for HSCI 230.
Open module