Department of Health Policy and Management

Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health

School URL: http://www.pbhealth.iupui.edu

School E-mail: pbhealth@iupui.edu

(Please note that when conferring University Graduate School degrees, minors, certificates, and sub-plans, The University Graduate School’s staff use those requirements contained only in The University Graduate School Bulletin.)

Curriculum

Curriculum
Courses
Faculty

Degrees Offered

Doctor of Philosophy in Health Policy and Management

(The Master in Public Health, Health Policy and Management Concentration and Master of Health Administration are granted by the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health. For information on all five of the concentrations offered in the M.P.H. Program and M.H.A., visit the Fairbanks School of Public Health website, (http://www.pbhealth.iupui.edu).

Doctor of Philosophy

The PhD in Health Policy and Management program at the IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health is ideal for students who are interested in developing the analytical, methodological and professional skills needed to tackle the many health policy and management challenges facing Indiana, our nation, and the world. As a core discipline within the field of public health, health policy and management focuses on the creation of new knowledge that informs the advancement of health services delivery within and across the public, private, and non-profit sectors. With a PhD degree in Health Policy and Management, students will be well-prepared to take on independent research roles as academic faculty members.

Students pursuing this degree must complete at least 90 credit hours that include advanced graduate coursework, passing a qualifying examination, and researching and defending a dissertation that makes an original contribution to the field. The department’s distinguished faculty members instruct, mentor, and collaborate closely with students. You’ll benefit from working with faculty members who are nationally recognized for their research in health information technology, healthcare organizations, health policy and law, health impact assessment, and more. To support this research, faculty members have a diverse research funding portfolio that includes grants and contracts from the NIH, AHRQ, SAMHSA, NCAA, CDC, and numerous Indiana state agencies. Students have access to outside expertise through the department’s longstanding close collaborations with the IU School of Medicine, the Regenstrief Institute, the IU Kelley School of Business, the IU McKinney School of Law, the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, the Indiana Hospital Association, the Indiana State Department of Health, and top health systems and professional organizations throughout the state and nation.

Admission Requirements

The application deadline for the Health Policy and Management Ph.D. program is April 1 for International applicants and May 1 for US applicants of each year for matriculation in the following fall semester. Applications must be submitted through the School of Public Health Application System (SOPHAS) at www.SOPHAS.org.  Document to be submitted with the application include:  

• Resume or Curriculum Vita
• Statement of Purpose and Objectives
• Sample of scholarly writing authored solely by the applicant
• Three (3) letters of recommendation from people who can comment on the applicant’s suitability for doctoral level studies (e.g., former professors, employers or other professionals involved in health policy and management)
• Competitive scores on the GRE, GMAT, MCAT, LSAT, or DAT.  The graduate entrance exam requirement may be waived if the applicant has a graduate or professional degree from an accredited U.S. college or university.
• TOEFL Scores
• Official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended documenting a cumulative GPA of at least a 3.0 on a 4.0 scale in all prior academic work and a letter grade of B or higher in all courses that fulfill prerequisites.
• World Education Services (WES) ICAP course-by-course evaluation for all post-secondary foreign institutions attended.
• Application to the I.U.'s University Graduate School.
• Selected candidates will be invited for a personal interview with members of the Admissions Committee.

Course Requirements

The Health Policy and Management PhD program consists of ninety (90) credit hours and can be completed on a full-time or part time basis. Students must complete the PhD courses within seven (7) years of matriculation into the program. After finishing their coursework, students have up to seven (7) additional years to complete their dissertation. However, students must complete their coursework and dissertation within a ten (10) year period.

Public Health Foundations (9 crs.)

Take all three courses for a total of nine credit hours. Some students will be able to transfer credit for these courses.

• P506 Population and Public Health (3 credits)
• H641 Ethics in Public Health (3 credits)
• B551 Biostatistics for Public Health I (3 credits)

Health Policy and Management Foundations (12 cr.)

• H670 (future H786) Healthcare Organizations Research (3 credits)
• H670 (future H787) Health Policy Research (3 credits)

One of the following two:

• H658 Health Policy and Program Evaluation (3 credits)*
• S510 Introduction to Research Methods in Public Health (3 credits) *

One of the following two: 

• H619 Financial Management for Public Health Organizations(3 credits)
• H514 Health Economics (3 credits)

*PhD students may be expected to register for a different section of these courses and/or complete additional assignments/tasks commensurate with the expectations of a doctoral course. PhD students with prior equivalent coursework will be expected to substitute a more advanced course in a related area.

PhD Seminars (13 crs.)

Students will be expected to take the HPM Research Seminar course during four times for a total of 12 credit hours. These courses do not build on one another and need not be taken in order.

• H747 Health Policy and Management Research Seminar (12 credits)
• S725 Preparing for Academics in Public Health (1 credit)

Methods and Skills Courses (24 crs.)

Required Courses 

• B562 Biostatistics for Public Health II (3 credits)
• H644 Health Impact Assessment (3 credits)
• H781 Research Design in Health Policy and Management Research (3 credits)
• H782 Quantitative Methods in Health Policy and Management (3 credits)
• H783 Qualitative Methods for Health Services Research (3 credits)
• H657 Application of Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in Pub Health (3 credits)

Elective Courses

Choose two of the following. Other courses may be substituted with program director approval.

• E606 Grant Writing for Public Health (3 credits)
• E710 Advanced Public Health Survey Methods (3 credits)
• E563 Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis in Health Sciences (3 credits)

Minor Area (12 crs.)

Students must complete a PhD minor. The minor must contain at least four graduate courses (12 credit hours) and comply with the requirements of the minor department/unit. Students wishing to complete a minor outside of the following should consult with the program director for guidance: Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Health Informatics, Sociology, Policy Analysis.

Dissertation (20 crs.)

• H799 Dissertation Proposal (4 credits)
• H800 Dissertation Research (16 credits)

Other Degree Requirements for the PhD in Health Policy and Management

Public Health Coursework
Health Policy and Management PhD students without a graduate degree, certificate or coursework in public health will be required to complete online introductory modules on Environmental Health and Social and Behavioral Science to ensure they have basic competencies in all five core public health areas. This is a requirement of the Council on Education in Public Health (CEPH), the Fairbanks school’s accrediting body.

PhD Advisory Committee
The Department of Health Policy and Management will assign the student to an advisory committee after completion of the first year in the PhD program. The advisory committee will include at least two Health Policy and Management faculty; one member may be from another discipline. The advisory committee will approve the student’s program of study and counsel the student until he or she passes the qualifying examination. The chair of the PhD advisory committee will be a full-time faculty in the Department of Health Policy and Management. Faculty who meet the IUPUI Graduate School guidelines will be eligible to serve as dissertation advisors.

Minor Area
The student will select at least one minor from outside the department of Health Policy and Management. The PhD minor typically includes four graduate level courses, complies with requirements of the respective minor department or program, and must be approved by the student’s advisory committee. Examples of minors include: bioethics, international research ethics, biostatistics, epidemiology, health economics, medical sociology, medical anthropology, nursing administration, business administration, and bioinformatics.

Qualifying Examinations
The written qualifying examination is designed to assess the student’s attainment of the stated Health Policy and Management PhD competencies and is taken after the coursework for the PhD has been completed. Students who fail the qualifying examination are normally allowed to retake it once.

Students who have passed the qualifying examination must enroll each semester (excluding summer sessions) for dissertation credits. Once students have accumulated 90 credit hours in completed course work and dissertation credits, they may maintain continuous enrollment by enrolling in G901 for six credit hours at a cost of $150. Students can enroll in G901 for no more than six semesters.

The department of Health Policy and Management will monitor the students’ progress toward the PhD degree and will make recommendations to the University Graduate School regarding the nomination to candidacy, the appointment of a research committee, the defense of the dissertation, and the conferring of the PhD degree.

Dissertation
The dissertation will be written on an original topic of research and presented as one of the final requirements for the Health Policy and Management PhD degree. The student’s dissertation research committee will be comprised of members of the graduate faculty. The chair of the dissertation research committee must be a regular faculty member in the Department of Health Policy and Management, and a full member of the Graduate Faculty. The student will submit to the IUPUI Graduate Office, acting for the University Graduate School, a two-page prospectus of the dissertation research and the membership of the research committee at least six months before the defense of the dissertation.

After the committee has reviewed the dissertation, the decision to schedule the defense will be made. The student will then present and defend the dissertation orally in a public forum before the committee. Following the dissertation defense, all deficiencies must be adequately addressed to obtain approval by the dissertation research committee.

Doctoral Minor in Health Policy and Management

Program E-mail: fsphinfo@iu.edu  

Departmental URL: https://fsph.iupui.edu/academics/doctoral/minors/hpm.html

(Please note that when conferring University Graduate School degrees, minors, certificates, and sub-plans, The University Graduate School’s staff use those requirements contained only in The University Graduate School Bulletin.)

The IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health offers a PhD minor in Health Policy and Management that provides students with a foundation in the concepts and methods of health policy and management research. These concepts and methods draw on many disciplines, including economics, organizational theory and behavior, informatics, sociology, psychology, and statistics. Therefore, this minor is ideal for students from many schools including the IU Schools of Nursing, Dentistry, Medicine, Liberal Arts, Physical Education and Recreation, Health Rehabilitative Sciences, Law, and Public and Environmental Affairs. Students in other School of Public Health doctoral programs are also welcome in the minor.

The doctoral minor in Health Policy and Management is a rigorous, highly focused 12-credit hour minor that serves as a useful complement to many major areas of study. You will learn theoretical concepts and how to apply them. Accomplished and research-productive faculty in the Department of Health Policy and Management will serve as advisors and instructors for students choosing this minor. By completing this minor, you will be able to:

• Critically appraise research streams in healthcare management, health policy, and health services research and identify important new research questions.
• Understand foundational theories and concepts used in healthcare management, health policy, and health services research and apply them to novel research studies.
• Identify and understand the strengths and weaknesses of study designs frequently used in healthcare management, health policy, and health services research.
• Conduct quantitative and qualitative analyses to answer critical healthcare management, health policy, and health services research questions.

Students who wish to obtain a doctoral minor from the IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health must earn a grade of “B” or better in the coursework for the minor. Courses in which a grade of “B-” or lower is earned will not apply toward completion of the minor.

Health Policy and Management Minor Curriculum

Choose any four of the following 3-credit courses:

• PBHL-H 747 Health Policy and Management Research Seminar (may be taken up to 2 times on different topics)
• PBHL-H 786 Healthcare Organizations Research
• PBHL-H 781 Research Design in Health Policy and Management
• PBHL-H 782 Quantitative Methods in Health Policy and Management
• PBHL-H 783 Qualitative Methods in Health Services Research

Other courses may be taken if approved by the student's minor advisor.

Doctoral Minor in Health Systems and Services Research

Program E-mail: fsphinfo@iu.edu  

Departmental URL: https://fsph.iupui.edu/academics/doctoral/minors/health-systems.html

(Please note that when conferring University Graduate School degrees, minors, certificates, and sub-plans, The University Graduate School’s staff use those requirements contained only in The University Graduate School Bulletin.)

This minor provides a mix of substantive and methods courses in social science or related reference disciplines that are frequently drawn on by researchers who study health systems or health services.

The purpose of this minor is to provide PhD students with a new minor option that helps them develop conceptual and methodological depth in social science or related reference disciplines that are frequently drawn on by researchers who study health systems or health services, including Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Biostatistics, and Communication Studies. Because these areas of study often employ related concepts and methods, this minor will allow students
to take minor courses that cut across departments and programs while still provide depth in a non-major area of study.

Curriculum

Students will complete 12 credits by choosing from the list of substantive and methods courses.

Students complete 1 or 2 of the following substantive courses:
Economics

• ECON E581 Applied Microeconomics I
• ECON E582 Applied Microeconomics II
• ECON E521 Microeconomics Theory
• ECON E583 Applied Macroeconomics

Psychology

• PSY 572 Organizational Psychology
• PSY 570 Staffing
• PSY-I 647 Attitudes and Social Cognition

Sociology

• SOC R515 Sociology of Health and Illness
• SOC R556 Advanced Sociological Theory I
• SOC R557 Advanced Sociological Theory II
• SOC R585 Social Aspects of Mental Health and Mental Illness
• SOC R560 Topics in Sociology

Communication Studies

• COMM C500 Advanced Communication Theory
• COMM C592 Advanced Health Communication
• COMM C528 Group Communication and Organizations

Students complete 2 or 3 of the following methods courses:
Econometric Methods

• ECON E570 Econometrics
• ECON E574 Times Series and Forecasting

Psychology Methods

• PSY 60800 Measurement Theory and the Interpretation of Data
• PSY I643 Field Methods and Experimentation
• PSY I583 Judgment and Decision Making in Organizations

Biostatistics and Epidemiology Methods

• PBHL E715 Design and Implementation of Observational Studies
• PBHL B585 Analysis and Interpretation of Observational Studies
• PBHL B 571 Biostatistics Method I-Linear Model in Public Health (4 cr)
• PBHL B 572 Biostatistics Method II-Categorical Data Analysis (4 cr)
• PBHL B 573 Biostatistics Method III-Applied Survival Data Analysis (4 cr)
• PBHL B 574 Biostatistics Method IV-Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis (3 cr)
• PBHL B 581 Biostatistics Computing
• PBHL B552 Fundamentals of Data Management
• PBHL B 582 Introduction to Clinical Trials

Other Social Science Methods

• OLS 53010 Mixed Methods Research
• E563 Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis in Health Sciences