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The Master of Science
in Health Policy Research Program at Penn is a two year, training
program with a primary focus on:
- health economics
- health policy
- qualitative/quantitative
data collection
- research design
- statistics and data analysis
The degree requires six core
courses, four elective courses, and a supervised Masters Thesis.
The core courses are:
FIRST YEAR
Economics of Health Care
Delivery
Course Description:
How medical care is produced
and financed in private and public sectors, economic models
of consumer and producer behavior, applications of economic
theory to health care
Instructor:
Mark Pauly, PhD, Bendheim Professor of Health Care Systems,
Business and Public Policy, Insurance and Risk Management,
and Economics, the Wharton School
Summer I 07
Health Services and
Policy Research Methods I
Course Description:
This course will introduce students
to commonly used primary data collection methods and provide
multiple examples of how they have been used in health services
research. Through the course students will define a primary
data collection research project and develop the methods necessary
to conduct the project. To get the full benefit of this course,
students should use this course to develop the methods they
plan to employ in their primary data collection project.
Instructors:
Judith Long, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, School of
Medicine
Joshua Metlay, MD PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, School
of Medicine
Judy Shea, PhD, Professor of Medicine, School of Medicine
Katrina Armstrong, Associate Professor of Medicine, School
of Medicine
Fall 07- Tuesday and Thursday 9-10:15am
Introduction to Statistics
for Health Policy
Course Description:
Introduction to Data Analysis
for Health Policy is intended to introduce participants to
basic concepts of statistical thinking and analysis. The class
with start with an overview of the goals of statistical analysis
and the types of questions that such analyses can answer.
Course content will include descriptive statistics, hypothesis
testing for differences between two or more groups and correlation
and prediction. Both parametric and non-parametric methods
will be included along with issues for critically assessing
study design and selection of statistical methods, sample
size and power calculation and how to present statistical
methods and results in manuscripts and reports.
Instructor:
Seema Sonnad, PhD, Associate Professor of Surgery, School
of Medicine
Fall 07- Tuesday and Thursday 10:45-12pm
Health Services and Policy
Research Methods II
Course Description:
Empirical research on health
care systems frequently involves the analysis of observational
data--information that is not primarily collected for research
purposes. With the rapid increase in U.S. health information
technology capacity, future opportunities for research using
these "secondary data" appear promising. This course
will describe the content and structure of several commonly
used administrative and public databases available to researchers.
Illustrations of common analytical techniques used to answer
health services and policy research questions using observational
data will be provided.
Instructor:
Daniel Polsky, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine
Peter Groeneveld, MD MS, Assistant Professor of Medicine,
School of Medicine
Spring 08- Tuesday and Thursday 9-10:15am
Applied Regression Analysis
for Health Policy Research
Course Description:
The course deals with the work
horse of quantitative research in health policy research -
the single outcome, multiple predictor regression model. In
this course, you will learn how to 1) select an appropriate
regression model for a given a set of research questions/hypotheses,
2) assess how adequately a given model fits a particular set
of observed data, and 3) how to correctly interpret the results
from the model fitting procedure. After a brief review of
fundamental concepts, we will spend five weeks covering the
major topics in this course using the example of ordinary
least squares (OLS) regression. In the second half of this
course, we will extend what we have learned to cover more
complicated data situations.
Instructor:
Samuel Field, PhD, Research Associate, School of Medicine
Spring 08- Tuesday and Thursday 10:45-12pm
SECOND
YEAR
Fundamentals of Health Policy
Course Description:
While academic researchers
often think of health policy in terms of research evidence
and outcomes, politics and political processes also play important
roles. The purpose of this course is to provide those pursuing
careers in health services research and health policy with
an understanding of the political context from which U.S.
health policy emerges. This understanding is important for
researchers who hope to ask and answer questions relevant
to health policy and position their findings for policy translation.
This understanding is important as well to policy leaders
seeking to use evidence to create change. The class provides
an overview of the U.S. health care system and then moves
on to a more comprehensive understanding of politics and government,
including the economics of the public sector, the nature of
persuasion, and techniques and formats for communication.
The course emphasizes reading, discussion and applied policy
analysis skills in both written and oral forms. Concepts will
be reinforced with case studies, written assignments and a
final policy simulation exercise where students will be placed
in the position of political advisors and policy researchers.
Instructor:
David Asch, MD, MBA, Robert Eilers Professor of Health Care
Management and Economics, the Wharton School
David Grande, MD, MPA
RWJ Health & Society Scholar, the Wharton School
Fall 08 9-10:15am
The course schedule allows full
time students to finish in two years while providing sufficient
flexibility for part-time students to have a logical series
of courses over a three or four year period. |
