Health and Medical Geography | Department of Geography and the Environment
  1. Home
  2. Degrees & Certificates
  3. Graduate Programs
  4. MS Degree Plans
  5. Health and Medical Geography

Health and Medical Geography

Rationale

The Health and Medical Geography (HMG) track at UNT Geography focuses on theory and techniques that are needed to understand the spatial patterns of health outcomes, environmental risks and exposures, disease spread as well as the distribution of health care services and lack thereof. Students specializing in this track will learn about the relationships between human activities, place, and health outcomes and how to evaluate those relationships using GIS methods, spatial and statistical analysis, and computational models. Students enrolled in this track are also encouraged to apply for the graduate certificate program in Public Health and GIS offered jointly by the Department of Geography at UNT and the School of Public Health at UNT Health Science Center (UNT-HSC). In collaboration with UNT-HSC, the department also offeres a dual degree in public health and geography. Students completing this track are likely to find employment in federal agencies, state and local departments of health, hospitals and clinics, or consulting firms.

Required Courses

  1. For the Applied Geography MS Program in General
  • GEOG 5160 Foundations of Geographic Thought (3)
  • GEOG 5190 Advanced Quantitative Techniques (3)
  • GEOG 5800 Research Design and Geographic Applications (3)

GEOG 5190 is the department's primary course to fulfill our MS program's analytical methods requirement. However, where individual student interests warrant, an alternative methods course may be selected by the major professor and must be approved by the Geography Graduate Committee. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

  1. For the Health and Medical Geography track
  • GEOG 5140 Medical Geography (3)
  • GEOG 5580 Health GIS (3)
  • GEOG 5150 Epidemiological Research Methods in Spatial Perspective (3)

Electives

Choose any two courses from this group:

  • GEOG 5410 Location-Allocation Modeling (3)
  • GEOG 5510 GIS for Applied Research (3)
  • GEOG 5550 Advanced GIS (3)
  • GEOG 5960 Application of Health Information and Spatial Analysis (3)
  • CSCE 5820/BIOL 5820/GEOG 5960 Computational Epidemiology (3)
  • ANTH 5210 Anthropology of Public Health (3)
  • ANTH 5201 Medical Anthropology (3)
  • EPID 5300 Principles of Epidemiology (3)
  • BIOS 5310 Biostatistics for Public Health 2 (3)

Recommended Minors

As an option, a student may include a minor in their program of studies. To satisfy the requirement for this optional minor, the student must select two courses (each with 3 credit hours) with a prefix other than GEOG or GEOL. Two recommended minors are listed below.

Anthropology

  • ANTH 5210 Anthropology of Public Health (3)
  • ANTH 5201 Medical Anthropology (3)

Public Health

  • EPID 5300 Principles of Epidemiology (3)
  • BIOS 5310 Biostatistics for Public Health 2 (3)

Please consult with your major professor about the possibility of completing a minor; alternatively, you will need to consult your major professor regarding GEOG or GEOL courses that would serve as appropriate coursework in place of a minor.

Thesis Students

  • GEOG 5950 Master's Thesis (6)*

* GEOG 5900 (Internship) may be taken within the thesis option in this track; in consultation with the Geography graduate advisor, the internship may be substituted for one of the required or techniques courses above. An internship is optional, but highly recommended.

Non Thesis Students

  • GEOG 5900 Internship (3)
  • GEOG 5920 Research Problems in Lieu of Thesis (3)