Health Policy

The PhD in Health Policy, awarded by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, is a collaborative program of six Harvard University faculties: the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Kennedy School. This degree is intended for students seeking teaching careers in institutes of higher learning and/or research careers in health policy. Joseph P. Newhouse, John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy and Management, is chair of the Committee on Higher Degrees in Health Policy that administers the program; Katherine Swartz, Professor of Health Economics and Policy, is director of graduate studies; Deborah Whitney is administrative director of the PhD Program in Health Policy and Ayres Heller is assistant director of the PhD program in Health Policy.

Candidates for the PhD in health policy will generally be in residence for two years before undertaking qualifying examinations. Satisfactory completion of those examinations is a prerequisite for writing a dissertation. Students are strongly encouraged to remain in residence in the Cambridge area until they have passed the dissertation proposal orals. However, the program encourages students to remain in residence throughout the dissertation stage as well. Continuation of candidacy is contingent upon suitable progress and achievement during each academic year.

For more information, visit www.healthpolicy.fas.harvard.edu. It is recommended that applicants obtain additional information about the PhD Program in Health Policy from Ayres Heller, assistant director, PhD Program in Health Policy, (617)-495-1357, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Admissions

A distinguished undergraduate record, as well as excellent performance in any graduate work undertaken, is required for admission to the PhD Program in Health Policy. Preference will be given to applicants who have had either some relevant work experience or graduate work after completion of a bachelor’s degree, although a previous graduate degree is not required. Scores from the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) or the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) that are five years old or less are required for all applicants. In addition, applicants whose native language is not English and who do not hold the equivalent of a US Bachelor degree from an institution at which English is the language of instruction must take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).

The PhD Program in Health Policy is particularly committed to increasing the diversity of its doctoral student population. Minority candidates, including African-Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic Americans are especially encouraged to apply.

Those wishing to apply to the MD program at the Harvard Medical School, as well as to the PhD Program in Health Policy, must apply separately to each program and indicate in the application to the PhD Program that a concurrent application has been submitted to the Harvard Medical School. Those admitted to both programs can combine some of the coursework to save time.

Similarly, applicants interested in the Coordinated JD/PhD program must apply to and be separately admitted to both the Law School and the PhD Program in Health Policy before applying to the Coordinated JD/PhD Program. Applicants should indicate in the application to the PhD Program that a concurrent application has been submitted to Harvard Law School.

Applicants are asked to 1) include a curriculum vitae or résumé with the application to the program; 2) indicate on a separate page in the application which area(s) of concentration and which policy area(s) within the program are of special interest; up to two areas of concentration may be specified; 3) include letters of recommendation (recommenders are encouraged to submit letters online); 4) send fall term grades when available if attending school while applying to the program; 5) include a statement of purpose; 6) include a recent sample of written work that is no more than 20 pages in length (applicants to the ethics concentration only).

The application deadline is in mid-December for admission in the following fall. The online application is available through the GSAS website.

Financial Aid

The department offers financial support for graduate study, based both on need and merit. For example, thanks to grants from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Library of Medicine, the program can offer some traineeships to students who are US citizens or permanent residents of the US. As the program is committed to increasing the diversity of the doctoral student population, Harvard provides Graduate Prize Fellowships (tuition for five years in the program and a stipend for three years) to underrepresented minority applicants, with financial need, who are admitted to the program. Applicants are encouraged to apply for external grants and fellowships whenever possible. The program has created a list of fellowship opportunities in health policy, which will be sent to you upon request.

Degree Requirements

The PhD program has the following components:

■ Two years (generally) of coursework, including a full-year Core course.
■ Concentration in one academic discipline (decision sciences, economics, ethics, evaluative science and statistics, management, medical sociology, or political analysis) and specialization at the dissertation stage in one policy area (environmental health, healthcare services, international health, mental health, or public health).
■ Three one-term courses, chosen from three concentrations outside a student’s field of concentration. The statistics requirement (noted below) may be used to satisfy one of the three requirements, except for students concentrating in evaluative science and statistics.
■ Two one-term courses in statistics.
■ One course in epidemiology.
■ A weekly research seminar starting in the third year.
■ Written general and concentration examinations following two years of coursework; the general examination may contain an oral component.
■ A dissertation prospectus and oral examination.
■ A dissertation based on original research and a dissertation defense

Concentrations

Students in the PhD in health policy program choose a concentration and meet specific curriculum requirements in one of the following seven disciplines. For complete information on each concentration, including course requirements for each, please visit the program Website at: www.healthpolicy.fas.harvard.edu.

Decision Sciences (Professor Milton C. Weinstein, chair). Decision sciences are the collection of quantitative techniques that are PhD in Health Policy 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. Students with a strong background in ethics and political philosophy will have a chance to deepen that understanding and apply it to issues in health policy while at the same time acquiring necessary quantitative skills. Students with degrees or training in related fields, such as law or medicine or public health, will acquire both normative and quantitative skills needed for research and teaching in ethics and health policy.

Research in health policy and ethics would include such topics as: policies for the allocation of scarce resources to individuals (e.g., human organs for transplantation, newly developed drugs, hospital beds) and across categories of patients (treatment vs. prevention for HIV/AIDS, or for HIV/AIDS vs. malaria); policies for care at the beginning and end of life; evaluation of informed consent protocols and their effectiveness; issues of equity in the evaluation of policies determining access to health services and the reduction of risk factors; policies responding to cross-cultural variation in ethical norms; ways in which health professionals are educated; policies regarding the balance between the individual and the collective (e.g., in bio-terrorism, epidemic control, etc.). While not abandoning the concerns of traditional work in bioethics, the program aims to produce students who are interested in the ethics of population health. Accordingly, students in this track will develop core skills for the conduct of both normative analysis and empirical research in ethics.

Evaluative Science and Statistics (Professor Stephen B. Soumerai and Professor Alan M. Zaslavsky, co-chairs). Training in this concentration will enable students to study the effects of a wide range of policies and health services (e.g., health insurance, health-care quality improvement, clinical decision-making, drug policy, cost-containment, and socioeconomic factors) on behaviors, access, processes and quality of health care, health outcomes, or costs. Students in this concentration will develop proficiency in experimental and quasi-experimental research design, statistics, relevant social sciences, and other methodological approaches (e.g., epidemiology, program evaluation, qualitative methods, and survey design).

Management (Professor Amy 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 health care organizations. Students in this track should have a strong interest in pursuing research on such issues as the design and improvement of health care delivery processes, approaches for improving health care quality and productivity, the development and adoption of new medical technologies, financial incentives in health care, the new role of patients as consumers in health care, the appropriate ownership and organizational structure of hospitals and other health care providers, and the management of professional health care staffs. We expect students completing this track to find jobs in academic and research institutions that have an interest in the impact of management on health care.

Medical Sociology (Professor Nicholas A. Christakis, chair). 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, 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. Research on these substantive topics will be necessarily interdisciplinary. In particular, students should develop a strong grounding in psychological and sociological theories of individual behavior and theories of institutions, organizations, and professions.

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. 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 public health and health services fields.

Policy Areas

In addition to choosing a concentration, students specialize in one of five areas of policy interest:

Environmental Health (Professor James Hammitt, chair). This area is designed for students whose interests relate to environmental pollution. Examples of topics for study include community right-to-know laws, marketable pollution permits, effluent fees, technology-forcing regulation, and mass toxic tort litigation.

Health Care Services. This area is designed for students whose primary interests are access to health care, medical technology assessment, quality of health care, and the costs and financing of health care services.

International Health (Professor David E. Bloom, chair). This policy area focuses on the economic determinants and consequences of health and health care in countries other than the US, especially less developed countries.

Mental Health (Professor Richard G. Frank, chair). This area is designed for students who wish to specialize in mental health policy, including the financing of services, the roles of public and private sectors, and the links between mental health and human services.

Public Health (Professor Sue J. Goldie, chair). This area is designed for students who are interested in policies directed at the rates of disease and injury in the population. Major topics include smoking behavior, control of alcohol abuse, mental health, traffic accidents, dietary and nutritional recommendations, occupational safety, gun control, control of infectious diseases including AIDS, and food and drug regulation.

Committee on Higher Degrees in Health Policy/Research Interests

Dissertation Titles Graduates’ Positions

The PhD Program in Health Policy has an excellent record of graduate placement. Selected graduates’ dissertation titles and their current positions are listed here.

Decision Sciences

“Cost-Effectiveness of Imaging and Surgery in Patients with Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases,” 1999. Current position: Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School; Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health; Director, Partners Radiology; Director, Institute for Technological Assessment, Massachusetts General Hospital

“Evaluating Preferences for Health Risks,” 2000. Current position: Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy and Administration, Biostatistics and Epidemiology, College of Public Health, University of Georgia

“Empirical Approaches to Modeling HIV and Hepatitis C,” 2001. Current position: Associate Professor of International Health, Department of Population and International Health, Harvard School of Public Health

“The Cost-Effectiveness of Early Antiretroviral Therapy for HIV-Infected Adults,” 2001. Current position: Associate Professor of Public Health and Chief, Division of Health Policy, Department of Public Health, Weill Medical College of Cornell University

“Decision Analysis in the Evaluation of Breast Cancer Treatment,” 2003. Current position: Assistant Outcomes Research Scientist, Health Outcomes Group, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

“Decision-analytic Approaches to Evaluating Prevention Policy Alternatives,” 2008. Current position: Assistant Professor of Decision Science, Stanford Medical School, Stanford University

Economics

“Risk Sharing in Managed Care,” 1998. Current position: Associate Professor of Health Economics and Policy, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health

“Economic Analyses of Medicare HMOs,” 1999. Current position: P&R Director (Pricing & Reimbursement), MAx PCBU (Market Access, Primary Care Business Unit), Pfizer, Inc.

“The Effect of Market Reforms and Ownership Choice on the Quality of Care in Hospitals,” 2001. Current position: Associate Professor of Economics, Graduate School of Business and Public Policy, Naval Postgraduate School & Faculty Research Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research

“The Economics of Long-Term Care Decision-Making Among the Elderly,” 2002. Current position: Principal Analyst, Health and Human Resources Division, Congressional Budget Office

“Empirical Essays on Major Forces in Health, Population, and Development,” 2005. Current position: Assistant Professor of Medicine, Stanford University

“An Empirical Evaluation of the Kyrgyz Health Reform: Does It Work for the Poor?” 2007. Current position: Senior Health Financing Policy Specialist, Barcelona Office for Health Systems Strengthening, Division of Country Health Systems, WHO Regional Office for Europe

“Essays on Information, Competition and Quality in Health Care Provider Markets,” 2009. Current position: Assistant Professor of Health Care Management, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania

Ethics

“Corporate Form of Hospitals: Behavior and Obligations,” 2002. Current position: Louis and Myrtle Moskowitz Research Professor of Business and Law, University of Michigan Law School

“The Consumer’s Role in Nursing Home Quality,” 2004. Current position: Assistant Professor of Health Policy, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School

“The Regulation of Individual Autonomy in Medical Decision-Making,” 2008. Current position: Associate Professor of Law, University of California, Hastings College of the Law

"Conflicts of Interest Among Oncology Clinical Trials Investigators and Among Patient Advocacy Organizations, and Patient Preferences and Health Care Disparities," 2010. Current position: Professional Staff and Assistant Professor, The Cleveland Clinic, Bioethics Department

Evaluative Science and Statistics

“How Tribes Choose Between Tribal and Indian Health Service Management of Health Care Resource; Drug Coverage and Drug Use by Medicare Beneficiaries; Bias in Measures of Guideline Adherence,” 1999. Current position: Research Scientist, Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente

“Firearms: Storage and Use at Home and Use in Suicides by Children,” 2001. Current position: Research Associate, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health; Associate Director, Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center and Co-Director, National Violent Injury Statistics System, Harvard School of Public Health

“Evaluating Infant Experience Under Medicaid Managed Care,” 2003. Current position: Director of Policy and Research, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation

“A Cost and Outcomes Analysis of Emergency Transport, Inter-Hospital Transfer and Hospital Expansion Policies in Cardiac Care,” 2006. Current position: Assistant Professor of Medicine, Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies, Tufts University School of Medicine

“Longitudinal Methods for Investigating Pharmaceutical Advertising, Adherence and Prior Authorization Policies,” 2008. Current position: Assistant Professor, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia

“Improving Maternal Health Services: Characterizing Risks and Measuring Program and Policy Impacts,” 2009. Current position: Assistant Professor, Division of Health Policy and Management, University of Minnesota School of Public Health

Management

“Organizational Learning in Health Care: Insights from a Multi-Method Study of Quality Improvement Collaboratives,” 2007. Current position: Assistant Professor of Public Health and Management, Yale University School of Medicine & Yale University School of Management

“Safety Climate in US Hospitals: Its Measurement, Variation, and Relationship to Organizational Safety Performance,” 2008. Current position: Assistant Professor of Health Care Management and Policy, Harvard School of Public Health

“‘Everything for Everybody’? An Examination of Organizational Scope in the Hospital Industry,” 2010. Current position: Assistant Professor, Department of Health Policy and Administration, Pennsylvania State University

"The Use of Information Technology in US Health Care Delivery," 2011. Current position: Assistant Professor, School of Information & School of Public Health, University of Michigan

Medical Sociology

“End Stage Renal Disease: Factors Affecting Patient’s Treatment and Care Assessments,” 2006. Current position: Senior Policy Analyst, Race/Ethnicity and Health Care & Director, Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars Program, Kaiser Family Foundation

“Continuity and Team Approaches to Care: Effects on Physician-Patient Relationship Quality, Patients’ Experiences, and the Technical Quality of Care,” 2007. Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Health Services, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles

“Adoption of New Medical Technologies: The Case of Cervical Cancer Prevention,” 2009. Associate Health Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation

"Examining Changes in Mental Health Care by Race/Ethnicity: 1990-1992 to 2001-2003," 2010. Current position: NIMH Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School

Political Analysis

“Political Institutions, Participation and Media Evaluations: Influence on Health Care Policy,” 1995. Current position: Vice President and Director of Public Opinion and Media Research, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

“Consumer’s Values on Health Care Services,” 2003. Current position: Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration, College of Social Science, Ewha Women’s University, Korea

“Obesity Policy and the Public,” 2007. Current position: Assistant Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management and Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

“Polarized Politics, Public Opinion, and Health Reform,” 2010. Current Position: Program Analyst, Office of the Secretary, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Office of Health Policy, US Dept. of Health and Human Services