Public Health: The Way We Live, Work and Play is designed to help students think about contemporary health issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. The course includes an introduction to the five core areas of public health - biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health, health services administration, and social and behavioral sciences - and how these areas relate to various health, health care, and human service professions. Public health helps inform decisions that shape the behavior of individuals and communities. Students will analyze health issues such as health promotion, disease prevention, and health care policy from a variety of perspectives. As part of the course, students will work in small interdisciplinary teams to access and evaluate information about a particular individual or population-level health issue, and learn to argue persuasively, both orally and in writing, for interdisciplinary approaches to that health issue. The focus of the course is to engage students' curiosity about how the discipline of public health and interdisciplinary approaches apply to issues students may confront in their future professional work.

Italy's health system is similar to the US in that it is both publicly and privately funded. Italy's system, however, is known for its efficiency and equity. Privately funded policies are used to provide more options. Taking the course here would allow us to compare systems in such a way as to show differences in accessibility to health and wellness, disparities in outcomes, responses to public health issues. Italy was also an original epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many lessons can be drawn from Italy's response and comparing it to the US response and examining outcomes data. Lastly, Health needs data for Rome and Philadelphia, as well as environmental comparisons can be made. Taking the course in an international setting will afford students a unique opportunity to compare and contrast the way we live, work, and play with the local setting. Concepts will be discussed and introduced in the classroom, and students will explore Rome and the surrounding areas to gain real world examples.