The Innova Group

Helping to Develop Tomorrow’s Public Health Leaders

You learn; you do; you teach…then you learn again.

On April 22nd, Innova’s Paul Breslin served as a guest instructor for the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) degree program. Paul, a former adjunct faculty member at BUSPH, has participated as a guest instructor for the DrPH program for the past 4 years. The DrPH is the highest professional degree in the field. At BUSPH, the student candidates are experienced professionals, including physicians and other clinicians, as well as hospital, health department and insurance industry executives from the US and abroad. They are there seeking advanced training for leadership positions in public health.

As part of their final-semester Strategic Planning and Communications course, Paul has been providing these students a high-level overview of the role that facilities play in the delivery of healthcare, including how we plan and program facility capacity requirements. The intent is to help ensure as leaders they will understand the basics of the health facility planning and design process. Engaging with this year’s class was a bit different, given the current environment. As is the case with most educational institutions today, the learning environment has suddenly gone virtual. In addition, Paul tailored this year’s class materials to also address the timely topic of pandemic preparedness planning and its implications for facilities.

Innova’s annual engagements with this DrPH class have always been stimulating, and this year’s class was no exception. As Paul noted, “They pick up the concepts quickly and ask excellent and often challenging questions. I am reminded each year that the optimal place for continual learning is from the front of a classroom.”

May 2020

NOTE: The Innova Group has cultivated knowledge-sharing and professional development relationships with a number of academic institutions across the country, which we feel are strategically important to maintain and nurture.