PhD in Health Services Research and Policy

Clinical Decision and Evaluative Sciences

This track will provide students with the tools to analyze the effectiveness and value of personal health care services and to formulate policy options designed to improve them. Participants will learn analytic techniques such as decision analysis, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis, quality assessment, health care outcomes research and behavioral decision theory. They will then apply these techniques to analyze specific medical policy and health services issues.

The following is what a typical program of study might look like. For the current requirements for the Ph.D. students should consult the Graduate Student Handbook and their advisors.

Year 1

Summer

AEC 505 Mathematical Techniques in Economics or Math Camp (PSC)<

Fall

PSC 404 Introduction to Statistics & Probability
PM 421 Introduction to the US Health Care System
ECO 207 Microeconomics (ECO 471 could be substituted at student’s request)
PM 410 SAS

Elective
PM 428 Graduate workshops and departmental seminar series

Spring

PM 484 Medical Decision Making and Effectiveness Research
Alternating year 1 & 2: PM 483 - Economics & Policy or PM 458 - Qualitative Research Methods
PSC 405 Multivariate Statistical Methods
Alternating year 1&2: PM 483 - Economics & Policy or PM 458 - Qualitative research methods
PM 412 Survey Research

Elective
PM 428 Graduate workshops and departmental seminar series

Year 2

Fall

PM 4l5 Introduction to Epidemiology
Alternating year 2 & 3 - PM 446 Advanced Multivariate Statistical Methods or elective
PM 482 Clinical Evaluation and Outcomes Research
IND 50l Ethics in Research (0 credit hour)
PM 428 Graduate workshops and departmental seminar series

Spring

BST 465 Design of Clinical Trials
PM 416 Advanced Epidemiology
PM 438 Practical Skills in Grant Writing
Workshop in Scientific Communication
PM 428 Graduate workshop/departmental seminars

Summer 2/3 Comprehensive Exam

Year 3

Fall

Alternating year 2 & 3 - PM 446 Advanced Multivariate Statistical Methods or elective

Electives
3rd year project, leading to dissertation

PM 428 Graduate workshop/departmental seminar series
Teaching assistantship

Year 4/5

Dissertation

PM 428 Graduate workshop/departmental seminar series

Third Year for all Tracks

All doctoral students, in the third year complete a distinct research project, to be presented at a Graduate Research Workshop. The project is intended to help students integrate the methods they acquire during their discipline-based study with issues in health care and policy and analysis.

Commonly, but not universally, this project could form the basis for the student's dissertation, but it would have to be brought to fruition and completion as a distinct project here. This project would have magnitude greater than that for "a course" but less than a doctoral thesis.