Health Policy
Faculty of the Committee on the Doctor of Philosophy in Health Policy
Joseph P. Newhouse, John D. Macarthur Professor of Health Policy and Management (Kennedy School, Medical School, Public Health) (Chair)
John Zaven Ayanian, Professor of Health Care Policy and of Medicine (Medical School) and Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management (Public Health)
Katherine Baicker, Professor of Health Economics (Public Health)
Robert J. Blendon, Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis (Public Health, Kennedy School)
David Bloom, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography (Public Health)
Allan M. Brandt, Amalie Moses Kass Professor of the History of Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine, and Professor of the History of Science in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Daniel P. Carpenter, Allie S. Freed Professor of Government
Amitabh Chandra, Professor of Public Policy (Kennedy School)
Michael Chernew, Professor of Health Care Policy (Medical School)
Nicholas A. Christakis, Professor of Sociology (FAS), Professor of Medical Sociology in the Department of Health Care Policy (Medical School) (on leave spring term)
I. Glenn Cohen, Assistant Professor of Law (Law School)
David M. Cutler, Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics
Norman Daniels, Mary B. Saltonstall Professor of Population Ethics and Professor of Ethics and Population Health (Public Health)
Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management (Business School)
Arnold M. Epstein, John H. Foster Professor of Health Policy and Management (Public Health) and Professor of Medicine and Health Care Policy (Medical School)
Majid Ezzati, Associate Professor of International Health (Public Health)
Erica M. Field, Assistant Professor of Economics (on leave 2009-10)
Richard G. Frank, Margaret T. Morris Professor of Health Care Policy (Medical School)
Guy S. Gazelle, Professor of Radiology (Medical School) and Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management (Public Health)
Susanne J. Goldie, Roger Irving Lee Professor of Public Health (Public Health)
David C. Grabowski, Associate Professor of Health Care Policy (Medical School)
James K. Hammitt, Professor of Economics and Decision Sciences (Public Health)
Robert S. Huckman, Associate Professor of Business Administration (Business School)
Haiden A. Huskamp, Associate Professor of Health Care Policy (Medical School)
Guido W. Imbens, Professor of Economics
Ashish Kumar Jha, Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management (Public Health) and Assistant Professor of Medicine (Medical School)
Nancy M. Kane, Professor of Management (Public Health)
Jane Jooyun Kim, Assistant Professor of Health Decision Science (Public Health)
Gary King, David Florence Professor of Government
Michael R. Kremer, Gates Professor of Developing Societies (on leave fall term)
Bruce E. Landon, Associate Professor of Health Care Policy and of Medicine (Medical School)
Peter V. Marsden, Harvard College Professor, Edith and Benjamin Geisinger Professor of Sociology
Marie C. McCormick, Professor of Pediatrics (Medical School) and Sumner and Esther Feldberg Professor of Maternal and Child Health (Public Health)
Thomas G. McGuire, Professor of Health Economics (Medical School)
Barbara J. McNeil, Ridley Watts Professor of Health Care Policy and Professor of Radiology (Medical School)
John Michael McWilliams, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Medical School)
Michelle M. Mello, C. Boyden Gray Associate Professor of Health Policy and Law (Public Health)
Carl N. Morris, Professor of Statistics (FAS), Professor of Health Care Policy (Medical School)
Sharon-Lise T. Normand, Professor of Health Care Policy (Medical School) and Professor in the Department of Biostatistics (Public Health)
Gary Pisano, Harry E. Figgie, Jr. Professor of Business Administration (Business School)
Meredith B. Rosenthal, Associate Professor of Health Economics and Policy (Public Health)
Donald B. Rubin, John L. Loeb Professor of Statistics
Joshua A. Salomon, Associate Professor of International Health (Public Health)
Stephen B. Soumerai, Professor of Ambulatory Care and Prevention (Medical School)
David G. Stevenson, Assistant Professor of Health Policy (Medical School)
B. Katherine Swartz, Professor of Health Policy and Economics (Public Health)
Milton C. Weinstein, Henry J. Kaiser Professor of Health Policy and Management and Biostatistics (Public Health) and Professor of Medicine (Medical School, Public Health)
Alan M. Zaslavsky, Professor of Health Care Policy (Medical School)
Richard J. Zeckhauser (Kennedy School)
Graduate Program in Health Policy
The PhD in Health Policy, awarded by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, draws upon the resources of six Harvard faculties: the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Business School. 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 five areas of policy interest: environmental health, health care services, international health, 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, risk analysis, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis, decision modeling, and behavioral decision theory, as well as parts of operations research, microeconomics, statistical inference, management control, cognitive and social psychology, and computer science. 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 international, federal, state, and local governments and actors as their actions affect health and medical care. In addition to examining the literature on health economics, the training emphasizes microeconomic theory, econometrics, and interactions with other disciplines, including clinical medicine. The concentration prepares students for research and teaching careers as health economists.
Ethics (Professor Norman Daniels, Chair). The ethics concentration integrates quantitative, qualitative, and normative approaches to the analysis of ethical issues in health policy and clinical practice. Increasingly, the investigation of ethical issues in medicine and health policy has not only drawn on normative ethics and political philosophy, but has included empirical research concerning attitudes and practices in clinical and broader institutional settings. A grasp of normative theories and tools is important because ethical principles and approaches underlie, explicitly or implicitly, the formulation of particular health policies at both the macro and micro level. Students in this track will focus on developing skills in a range of disciplines, with the goal of evaluating how ethical and socio-cultural values shape - and should shape - health policies as well as clinical and public health practices.
Evaluative Science and Statistics (Professor B. Stephen Soumerai and Professor Alan M. Zaslavsky, Co-Chairs). Training in this concentration in health service 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.
Management (Professor Amy C. Edmondson and Associate Professor Robert S. Huckman, Co-Chairs). The management concentration prepares students to do research on the organizational, managerial, and strategic issues facing health care providers, payers, and other players in the health care market. Students in this track 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 - and further developed for understanding - health care organizations.
Medical Sociology (Professor Nicholas A. Christakis and Professor Peter V. Marsden, Co-Chairs). In this concentration, 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 evaluation, 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 the relationship between politics and health policy. Students will study theories of individual opinion formation, voting behavior, legislative organization, and interest group formation. In addition, students will examine the role of public opinion, interest groups, the media, and institutions in 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.
Applications: Prospective students should visit the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences website at www.gsas.harvard.edu to apply online 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 (joan_curhan@harvard.edu) and Deborah Whitney, Associate Director, PhD Program in Health Policy (deborah_whitney@harvard.edu). Website: www.healthpolicy.fas.harvard.edu.
Health Policy Courses
Health Policy 2000. Core Course in Health Policy
Catalog Number: 4522
Joseph P. Newhouse (Kennedy School, Medical School, Public Health), Richard G. Frank (Medical School), and Alan M. Zaslavsky (Medical School)
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 as HCP-597 and HCP-598 and with the School of Public Health as HPM 246.
*Health Policy 3000. Doctoral Dissertation Research
Catalog Number: 8422
Members of the Committee
Dissertation research.
[*Health Policy 3002. Graduate Reading Course: Mental Health Policy]
Catalog Number: 3528
Richard G. Frank (Medical School) 1371
Participants discuss research on the politics surrounding health policy and examine how to apply existing work and methodological approaches to their own work.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Offered in alternate years.
*Health Policy 3010. First-Year Graduate Reading Course: Ethics
Catalog Number: 9241
Norman Daniels (Public Health) 4722
Examines issues in ethics and health policy, including a basic account of justice and health; ethical critique of maximization methodologies, including cost-effectiveness analysis; individual and social responsibility for health; and other topics.
*Health Policy 3015. Second-Year Graduate Reading Course: Ethics
Catalog Number: 4380
Norman Daniels (Public Health) 4722
Student-led course reviews basic issues in ethics, political philosophy, and their bearing on health policy and is important preparation for the qualifying examinations.
*Health Policy 3016hf. Graduate Reading Course on Rawls: Ethics - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 25087
Norman Daniels (Public Health) 4722
Half course (throughout the year). W., 4:30-7 p.m.
Working through main themes in Rawls, readings draw on A Theory of Justice, Political Liberalism, Justice as Fairness, Law of Peoples, and some secondary sources.
[*Health Policy 3020. Graduate Reading Course: Political Analysis]
Catalog Number: 3781
Robert J. Blendon (Public Health, Kennedy School) 2712
Participants present their own ongoing research on the politics surrounding health policy and discuss recent research drawn from various methodological approaches. Graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars are welcome to present research at all stages.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Offered in alternate years.
*Health Policy 3030. Graduate Reading Course: Medical Sociology
Catalog Number: 1826
Nicholas A. Christakis (Medical School) 4459 (on leave spring term) and Peter V. Marsden 1797
*Health Policy 3040hf. Research Seminar in Health Policy
Catalog Number: 8870
B. Katherine Swartz (Public Health) 2461
Half course (throughout the year). .
*Health Policy 3060. Graduate Reading Course: Decision Sciences
Catalog Number: 2133
Milton C. Weinstein (Medical School, Public Health) 3043
*Health Policy 3070. Graduate Reading Course: Economics
Catalog Number: 7439
Joseph P. Newhouse (Kennedy School, Medical School, Public Health) 2425
*Health Policy 3080. Graduate Reading Course: Evaluative Science and Statistics
Catalog Number: 9516
Stephen B. Soumerai (Medical School) 1906 and Alan M. Zaslavsky (Medical School) 1927
*Health Policy 3090. Graduate Reading Course: Management
Catalog Number: 2492
Amy C. Edmondson (Business School) 4613 and Robert S. Huckman (Business School) 5234
Courses of Interest
[Economics 2458. Topics in Health Economics]
Economics 2460. Health Economics Workshop
Economics 2465. Health Economics - (New Course)
*Economics 3460chf (formerly *Economics 3460chf). Research in Health Economics
*Extra-Departmental Courses 187. The Quality of Health Care in America
Quantitative Reasoning 24. The Business and Politics of Health
[United States in the World 11. American Health Care Policy]