Welcome to the Public Health Education Group
The Public Health Education Group (PHEG)’s central purpose is to develop and deliver public health teaching courses within the University of Cambridge.
Our teaching consists of:
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Foundations of Evidence Based Practice – part of Medicine MB BChir and Veterinary Medicine VetMB (year 1 pre-clinical)
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Improving Health – part of Medicine MB BChir (years 4-5 clinical standard course, year 2-4 graduate course)
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Modules within Population Health Sciences MPhil (Principles of Biostatistics, Planetary Health, Leadership)
In addition to this, PHEG:
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Undertakes and supports research and innovation in clinical and public health education, co-produced with students.
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Supports public health, social justice and environmental sustainability education across the wider Clinical School.
Our Team
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Director of Public Health Teaching: Dr Anne Swift
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Assistant Director in Public Health Studies: Dr James Smith
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Assistant Director in Public Health Teaching: Dr Kirsteen Watson
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Assistant Director in Public Health Teaching: Dr Mei-Li Komashie
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Associate Teaching Professor in Clinical Education: Dr Charlotte Tulinius
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Associate Teaching Professor in Medical Statistics and Assessment: Dr Mary Fortune
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Climate Change Education Fellow: Dr Rebecca Davis
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Public Health Education Coordinator: Mrs Renata S Tessinari
Our teaching is developed and delivered with the help of local, national and international experts in public health as well as students from across the University.
To contact the group via our Public Health Education Coordinator
Our Teaching
Foundations of Evidence Based Practice (FEBP) is a 2nd MB subject taken by medical students in their first year. FEBP serves as an introduction to the core sciences underlying much of modern clinical practice – epidemiology, critical appraisal and medical statistics. These are areas of knowledge and skills required for the informed reading of research evidence and its translation into best clinical practice.
Improving Health (IH) is delivered to student on the standard medical course in years 4 to 6 and on the graduate medical course in years 2 to 4. Our aim is to ensure all students understand a population approach to health and the importance of this to their future role as a doctor. IH is organised into five strands; Improving Population Health, Improving Health Systems, Improving Health Behaviours, Improving Global Health, and Improving Health with Evidence. It covers the breadth of public health including the wider determinants of health, health improvement, health protection, health services and research methods.
For further information about the medical course: University of Cambridge Medicine MB BChir
Selected Masters Modules are delivered to students on the MPhil in Population Health Sciences. Principles of Biostatistics is a core module which aims to provide students with the necessary knowledge and biostatistical skills to be able to interpret and conduct basic statistical analyses of population health data. Theories of Leadership and Change for Public Health Practice enables students to explore and interrogate models and theories of leadership, management, communication and organisational change. Planetary Health helps participants develop an understanding of planetary health, including climate change, with a particular focus on how science can inform public policy.
For further information about this Masters course: MPhil in Population Health Sciences
Our Programmes and Projects
The PHEG Student Medical Educator Programme is our flagship programme for engaging and supporting students with research or teaching interests in medical education and public health. It is an optional extra-curricular programme which current clinical students can apply for. The programme offers opportunities for students to gain transferable education, research and leadership skills and a better understanding of how to build a career in medical education and public, global, and planetary health. We offer one-to-one and group supervision based on the students’ individual learning needs and support collaborations with other students and PHEG faculty. On graduation some students have continued as visiting researchers at PHEG as part of their academic postgraduate development. Interested current students should contact the Public Health Education Coordinator.
Student Selected Components Placements (SSCs) with PHEG are available for current year 4 students on the medical course. PHEG offers individual project supervision to students interested in public health, global health, planetary health and clinical education. Interested current students can find more information on the Moodle/VLE SSC directory.
The PHEG Public Health Education Research Programme brings together a variety of research on medical education and public, global, and planetary health. Student and faculty engagement is central to our approach which means that research projects are often based on student interests. In collaboration with the Clinical School, we lead the ‘Medical School post-COVID: Best ways forward for teaching and learning’, a multiple stakeholder participatory action research project. This uses empowerment evaluation as the theoretical frame of reference and consists of multiple work streams testing ideas for improvement of teaching and learning as a medical student at Cambridge. Other examples of research include an education needs analysis among faculty to establish equality, diversity and inclusion in the curriculum; and virtual flipped classrooms on global health bringing together students from Cambridge, U.K., Kharkiv, Ukraine and Kakamega Kenya. In addition, PHEG provides research methods support to the wider Clinical School for student and teaching faculty led research.
The Health for All Initiative aims to challenge structural injustices within the Clinical School, locally and further afield. The initiative is student-driven and supported by the PHEG team. Student groups work collaboratively within the various areas listed below and meet with faculty at intervals to discuss challenges, ideas and solutions to further social and environmental justice. The initiative is organised into the following domains: ethnicity, disability, religion, economic inequality and poverty, sexual and gender minorities, individuals with no fixed address, sex workers and prisoners, refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and modern slavery, and environmental justice. All faculty are encouraged to highlight Health for All issues throughout their teaching with support from Freya Arthure, EDI content administration.
Climate Change Integration has been a priority since 2023 when Dr Rebecca Davis was appointed as Climate Change Education Fellow. She has lead work integrating climate change and environmental sustainability across the clinical medical course with a resultant improvement in the student led Planetary Health Report Card where our grade for curriculum has increased to an A grade in 2024 with our score placing us 6th out of over 120 medical schools globally.
Selected PHEG Publications
[To be added shortly]
Get Involved
Current students – Clinical students can find more information on PHEG Student Medical Educators programme and SSCs on Moodle/VLE.
Future students – Please consider applying for the Medicine MB BChir or MPhil in Population Health Sciences courses.
Future teachers – There are opportunities to facilitate on both FEBP and IH courses for those with appropriate knowledge and skills.
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FEBP consists of lectures and small group supervisions based around appraising research papers. If you would be interested in being one of the supervisors, or in presenting a case study during a lecture (around 5min) discussing your clinical practice/research/ work, please contact FEBP@medschl.cam.ac.uk
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IH includes facilitated sessions on a wide variety of public health topics. Facilitators are typically local public health consultants or registrars, or sometimes other local clinicians or academic experts. If you are interested in becoming a facilitator, please contact ImprovingHealth@medschl.cam.ac.uk