Health Policy
Faculty of the Committee on Higher Degrees in Health Policy
Joseph P. Newhouse, John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy and Management (Kennedy School, Medical School, Public Health) (Chair)
Alyce Adams, Assistant Professor of Ambulatroy Care and Prevention (Medical School)
Robert J. Blendon, Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis (Public Health, Kennedy School)
Allan M. Brandt, Professor of the History of Science (FAS) and Amalie Moses Kass Professor of the History of Medicine (Medical School)
Paul D. Cleary, Professor of Medical Sociology (Medical School)
David M. Cutler, Professor of Economics
Arnold M. Epstein, John H. Foster Professor of Health Care Policy and Management (Public Health)
Richard G. Frank, Margaret T. Morris Professor of Health Economics (Medical School)
Susanne J. Goldie, Assistant Professor of Health Decision Science (Public Health)
John D. Graham, Professor of Policy and Decision Sciences (Public Health)
Jerry R. Green, John Leverett Professor and David A. Wells Professor of Political Economy (on leave spring term)
Edward Guadagnoli, Associate Professor of Health Care Policy (Medical School)
James K. Hammitt, Associate Professor of Economics and Decision Sciences (Public Health)
Haiden Ashby Huskamp, Assistant Professor of Health Economics (Medical School)
Gary King, Professor of Government
Arthur Kleinman, Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Faculties of Medicine and Arts and Sciences
Karen Mary Kuntz, Associate Professor of Health Decision Sciences (Public Health)
Peter V. Marsden, Professor of Sociology
Marie C. McCormick, Professor of Pediatrics (Medical School) and Sumner and Esther Feldberg Professor of Maternal and Child Health (Public Health)
Barbara J. McNeil, Ridley Watts Professor of Health Care Policy and Professor of Radiology (Medical School)
Carl N. Morris, Professor of Statistics (on leave 2001-02)
Peter J. Neumann, Assistant Professor of Policy and Decision Sciences (Public Health)
Sharon-Lise Teresa Normand, Associate Professor of Biostatistics (Medical School, Public Health)
Paul Pierson, Professor of Government
Gary Paul Pisano, Harry E. Figgie Jr. Professor of Business Administration (Business School)
Meredith B. Rosenthal, Assistant Professor of Health Economics and Policy (Public Health)
Donald B. Rubin, Professor of Statistics
Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and of Sociology (on leave spring term)
Stephen B. Soumerai, Professor of Ambulatory Care and Prevention (Medical School)
B. Katherine Swartz, Professor of Health Economics (Public Health)
Alan Zaslavsky, Associate Professor of Statistics (Medical School)
Richard J. Zeckhauser, Frank Plumpton Ramsey Professor of Political Economy (Kennedy School)
The PhD in Health Policy, awarded by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, draws upon the resources of five faculties: The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Public Health, the Medical School, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. This degree is intended primarily for students seeking teaching careers in institutes of higher learning and/or research careers in policy.
Students in the PhD Program in Health Policy choose a concentration and meet specific curriculum requirements in one of seven disciplines: decision sciences, economics, ethics, evaluative science and statistics, management, medical sociology, or political analysis. In addition to choosing a concentration, students specialize in one of four areas of policy interest: environmental health, health care services, mental health, or public health.
Decision Sciences (Professor Milton C. Weinstein, Chair). Decision Sciences are the collection of quantitative techniques that are used for decision making at the individual and collective level. They include decision analysis, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis, decision modeling, and behavioral decision theory. The concentration in decision sciences prepares students for research careers that involve the application of these methods to health problems.
Economics (Professor Joseph P. Newhouse, Chair). The concentration in economics focuses on the economic behavior of individuals; providers; insurers; and federal, state, and local governments as their actions affect health and medical care. In addition to examining the literature on health economics, the training emphasizes microeconomic theory; econometrics; public finance; industrial organization; labor economics; and interactions with other disciplines, including clinical medicine. This concentration prepares students for research and teaching careers as health economists.
Ethics (Professor Allan M. Brandt, Chair). The ethics concentration integrates quantitative and qualitative approaches to the analysis of ethical issues in health policy and clinical practice. Students in this track will focus on developing skills in a range of disciplines, with the goal of evaluating, through empirically-based research, how moral, ethical, and socio-cultural values shape health policies as well as clinical practices.
Management (Professor Gary P. Pisano, chair). The management concentration emphasizes the organizational, managerial, and strategic issues facing health care providers, payers, and other players in the health care market. Students will learn how theories and concepts from fields such as technology and operations management, organizational behavior, organizational economics, and competitive strategy can be applied to health care organizations. Areas of research include: the design and improvement of health care delivery processes, approaches for improving health care quality and productivity, development and adoption of new medical technologies, financial incentives in health care, new role of patients as consumers of health care, appropriate ownership and organizational structure of hospitals and other health care providers, and management of professional health care staff. Students will be required to take MBA, economic theory, and quantitative methods courses, as well as the Management and Markets course, at the Harvard Business School. We expect students completing this track to find jobs in academic and research institutions which have an interest in the impact of management on health care.
Medical Sociology (Professor Paul D. Cleary, Chair). In this track, students will learn about and contribute to knowledge in several research areas that are extremely important to health policy, including the study of professions and professional behavior; the structure of health care organizations and systems; the impact of organizational and professional change on the structure of medical work; organizational improvement programs and their evaluations; evaluation of intervention programs; the diffusion of innovations across providers and organizations; and the behavior of patients and consumers—including consumer evaluations of health care quality and patient perspectives on the process and outcomes of care.
Political Analysis (Professor Robert J. Blendon, Chair). This concentration is intended for students who wish to do research on political behavior and its effect in the health field. Students will study theories of public opinion formation, voting behavior, legislative behavior, interest group influence, and political strategy as well as examine the role of both political institutions and the media on influencing health policy outcomes. The research methodologies most utilized in this track include survey research methods and quantitative statistical methods appropriate for large-scale databases. Graduates of this concentration will likely teach and do research on the politics of health care and will be involved with government, professional, and consumer groups on research projects related to the politics of public policy in the health field.
Evaluative Science and Statistics (Professor Barbara J. McNeil and Professor Stephen Soumerai, co-chairs). Training in this concentration in health services and policy evaluation will enable students to evaluate the effects of a wide range of health services and policies (e.g., insurance, health care quality improvement, and cost-containment) on behaviors, access, processes and quality of care, health outcomes or costs. Students in this concentration will develop proficiency in experimental and quasi-experimental research design, statistics, other methodological approaches (e.g., epidemiology, program evaluation, qualitative methods and survey design) and relevant social sciences. Previous students in this track have used innovative methodological and statistical approaches to study, for example: the effects of drug coverage on access to essential medications in Medicare; the effects of employment on population health; international differences in outcomes of medical care for acute myocardial infarction; the health effects of HMO reductions and subsequent government increases in maternity lengths of stay; and effects of regulatory changes in legal drinking ages on health and mortality.
Applications: The application deadline is December 15th for admission in the following fall. To request admissions material, applicants should contact the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Byerly Hall, 8 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138—(617) 495-5315 —or visit the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences web page (www.gsas.harvard.edu/admissions) to apply on-line or to request an application. Important additional information on financial aid and other aspects of the PhD Program in Health Policy is available from Joan P. Curhan, Director, PhD Program in Health Policy, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138— joan—curhan@harvard.edu or (617) 496-5412. Website: www.fas.harvard.edu/~healthpl
Courses
Health Policy 2000. Core Seminar in Health Policy
Catalog Number: 4522
David M. Cutler, Richard G. Frank (Medical School), and Joseph P. Newhouse (Kennedy School, Medical School, Public Health)
Full course (indivisible). Tu., Th., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 18
Topics include the financing and organization of health care, public health, political analysis, medical manpower, health law and ethics, technology assessment, prevention, mental health, long-term care, and quality of care.
Note: Required for doctoral candidates in Health Policy and open to others by permission of instructor. Offered jointly with the Kennedy School of Government as HCP-597.
*Health Policy 3000. Doctoral Dissertation Research
Catalog Number: 8422
Members of the Committee on Higher Degrees in Health Policy
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Dissertation research.
*Health Policy 3002. Graduate Reading Course: Mental Health Policy
Catalog Number: 3528
Richard G. Frank (Medical School) 1371 and Joseph P. Newhouse (Kennedy School, Medical School, Public Health) 2425
Half course (throughout the year). Hours to be arranged.
*Health Policy 3010. Graduate Reading Course: Ethics
Catalog Number: 9241
Allan M. Brandt 3031
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
*Health Policy 3020. Graduate Reading Course: Political Analysis
Catalog Number: 3781
Robert J. Blendon 2712
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
The purpose of this research seminar is to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of research concerning the politics surrounding health policy and problems. Participants will discuss recent examples of research from a range of methodological approaches and will present their own work-in-progress. Graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars are welcome to present research at all stages of the research process. Occasionally, speakers will be invited to present.
*Health Policy 3030. Graduate Reading Course: Medical Sociology
Catalog Number: 1826
Paul D. Cleary (Medical School) 2713
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
*Health Policy 3040. Research Seminar in Health Policy
Catalog Number: 8870
B. Katherine Swartz (Public Health) 2461
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Cross-listed Courses
Economics 2460 (formerly Economics 2910). The Health Economics Workshop
*Economics 3460chf. Research in Health Economics
General Education 186. Introduction to Health Care Policy
[*General Education 187 (formerly Pforzheimer 123). The Quality of Health Care in America]
Quantitative Reasoning 24. Health Economics
The Interfaculty Initiative in Health Policy offers support for the study of health policy by undergraduate students concentrating in departments or committees. For information on this and for a copy of “A Course Guide for Undergraduates Interested in Health Policy, Harvard University,” please contact Joan Curhan, Administrative Director, Interfaculty Initiative in Health Policy at: joan—curhan@harvard.edu