Africa/Harvard School of Public Health Partnership for Cohort Research and Training

Lore & Background

The Africa/HSPH PaCT project was launched in 2009 to address the rising pandemic of heart disease, mental illness, cancer, and diabetes in Africa. Dr. Michelle D. Holmes, who witnessed the beginning of the AIDS pandemic in 1980s New York City, serves as Co-Principal Investigator. The project plans to collect data on diet, exercise, smoking, and other habits from approximately 500,000 participants across four countries (with five sites), filling a critical gap in African health data. Pilot studies have been started in all five sites, enrolling about 1,500 participants followed for six months, with data collected via questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, and blood samples.

Reader's Guide

The Africa/HSPH PaCT represents a significant effort to generate evidence on chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in sub-Saharan Africa, where such data have been lacking. By employing mobile phone technology for enrollment, retention, and follow-up, the project pioneers cost-effective methods for large-scale longitudinal studies in the region. The partnership also focuses on training a new generation of public health researchers and practitioners, and on spurring social entrepreneurship for chronic disease management. The project's collaboration with the MIT Human Dynamics Group and its participation in the World Cohort Integration Workshop highlight its role in fostering international data sharing and methodological innovation. Its findings are expected to guide prevention policies for NCDs in Africa.

Did You Know?

• The project plans to enroll approximately 500,000 participants from four countries (five sites) over a five-year period.
• Pilot studies enrolled about 1,500 participants across all five sites and followed them for six months.
• The project collaborates with the Human Dynamics Group of the Pentland Lab at MIT for mobile phone data analytics.

Origins & Institutional Evolution

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health did not appear fully formed. Its roots stretch back to 1913, when a joint venture between Harvard and MIT established the School for Health Officers—what Harvard itself describes as the country's first graduate-level training program focused on population health. For nearly a decade, this modest training ground operated under a shared identity before shedding its MIT connection in 1922 and rebranding as the Harvard School of Public Health. Even then, it remained tethered to Harvard Medical School, functioning as a subsidiary rather than an independent entity. Full autonomy arrived in 1946, when the school gained its own dedicated public health and medical faculty, finally standing as a separate institution within the Harvard ecosystem. That 1946 milestone marked the point at which the school could chart its own academic course, recruit its own leadership, and build the broad, multidisciplinary identity it carries today. The journey from a two-university training program to a standalone graduate school encapsulates a century of evolving American public health education.

The Chan Renaming & A Generous Legacy

In 2014, the school received a name that would anchor its modern identity. The Morningside Foundation, directed by Gerald Chan (a 1975 SM and 1979 SD graduate of the school) and his brother Ronnie Chan, pledged $350 million—the single largest gift in Harvard's history up to that point. The foundation was named for their father, Chan Tseng-hsi, a Hong Kong entrepreneur whose vision extended well beyond the business world. The renaming to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health was a public acknowledgment that the school's future was being shaped by its own alumni community. Gerald Chan's dual degree path through the institution—first a master's in public health, then a doctorate in science—illustrates the kind of deep institutional loyalty the gift represented. The donation did not merely buy a plaque; it signaled a commitment to sustaining the school's research infrastructure, its global programs, and its educational mission for generations of students yet to arrive.

Curriculum Architecture & the Degree Revolution

The school's academic structure reflects a deliberate philosophy: different career trajectories demand different training architectures. The Master of Public Health program spans ten distinct fields, from Epidemiology and Nutrition to Health Policy and Quantitative Methods, while the Master of Health Care Management targets future practitioners in professional settings. Master of Science degrees, by contrast, are calibrated for aspiring researchers, with credit requirements flexing based on whether a student arrives with a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral credential. In 2016, the school announced a sweeping consolidation: beginning in fall 2017, five separate Doctor of Science research programs—Epidemiology, Environmental Health, Global Health and Population, Nutrition, and Social and Behavioral Sciences—merged into a single Ph.D. in Population Health Sciences administered through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Students already enrolled in the ScD tracks completed their studies as the final cohort of that 144-year-old degree, which had first been awarded in 1872. Simultaneously, the 2014 launch of the Doctor of Public Health introduced a three-year, cohort-based doctoral path blending advanced public health study with leadership, management, and innovation training, including a field-based doctoral project.

Research Legacy & Global Footprint

Few institutions can claim the kind of longitudinal research infrastructure the Harvard Chan School has built. The Nurses' Health Study and its successor, Nurses' Health Study II, have tracked the health of more than 100,000 women since 1976, generating findings that have fed into hundreds of published papers. The Health Professionals Follow-up Study mirrors that ambition for over 50,000 men, linking diet, exercise, smoking, and medication use to cancer and cardiovascular outcomes. Beyond these domestic cohorts, the International Health Systems Program has delivered training and technical assistance across 21 countries while conducting health policy research. The Program on the Global Demography of Aging zeroes in on the economics of aging in the developing world. The Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness coordinates cross-disciplinary research into how positive psychological well-being intersects with physical health and longevity. The Health Systems Innovation Lab, led by Professor Rifat Atun, pursues comparative health systems research and works with governments, multilateral bodies, and civil society to accelerate the diffusion of high-value health system innovations at the population level.