[MUSIC] Welcome everyone to the module on the Problems Solving Methodology. My name is Keri Althoff and I'm with the Department of Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. Let's get started right away with an introduction to this very important Methodology. Today we have one reading that will support the material you will see in the module. This reading is by Bernard Guyer. He is also with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health. He's a very important researcher in population sciences. This reading will help very closely support all the material that you will see in this module. The objectives of this multi part interaction is to describe the steps in the problem solving methodology, which we're going to often abbreviate as PSM. We're going to apply the problem solving methodology to a population-based health problem, a real problem that occurred here in Baltimore City where Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is located. After this lecture, you will be able to apply the problem solving methodology to a public health problem of interest to you. You will not be able to execute every step in this methodology on your own, as we'll talk about. It's a very central theme in public health that it often takes a team with diverse expertise to solve problems and this problem solving methodology is an example of that central theme. Let's jump right in. This figure is a depiction of the Problem Solving Methodology. I think pictures are always very helpful when you're trying to understand a process or a flow which is what a Problem Solving Methodology actually is. We'll go through each step in detail. But again because successful public health strategies typically require a multidisciplinary team, the professional epidemiologist is just one of the team members that will participate in this methodology. You will need to be familiar with all the steps in the process as the professional epidemiologist but you will also need to recruit other team members to help you use this methodology to effectively solve a public health problem. One of the best ways to learn is to see an example. We will used this problem to demonstrates this steps in the problem solving methodology. This is our real public health problem that was identified and a response was executed in order to solve this public health problem. We'll use it as a very real world example from right here in Baltimore City where Johns Hopkins is located. The problem setup is as follows. The Baltimore Sun, which is the main Baltimore City newspaper, reports that the infant mortality rate in Baltimore City is higher than the state in which it resides, which is Maryland, as well as higher than the national infant mortality rate for the US. They also print some similar estimates of infant mortality rates in low and middle-income countries. This report is incredibly effective. The Mayor of Baltimore City sees the report and calls the Baltimore City Health Commissioner. Her directive is simple. Do something about this high infant mortality rate. The Health Commissioner calls her Chief Epidemiologist to start an investigation into the high infant mortality rate, and generate solutions for interventions to reduce this rate. In this scenario, you are an employee in the Epidemiology Bureau at the Baltimore City Health Department. The Chief Epidemiologist comes to you and asks for your help on the team to investigate the problem and solve this situation of a very high infant mortality rate in this city. Borrowing from medical education, we're going to encourage you to see one, do one, and teach one in this module, using this specific example. After you see the application of the problem solving methodology in this course we suggest that you apply the methodology to a problem that is of interest to you. And then, the final test of your knowledge will be to teach the problem solving methodology to someone else. See one, do one, teach one. We'll start with the first step in the next video.
