Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• SPH PM 807: Introduction to Cost Effectiveness Analysis
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPH717 & SPHPH719) or PM814. Cannot count both PM807 and PM855 for credit. - This course examines the use of cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) in health policy and medical decision-making. Students gain a working knowledge of theoretical and practical issues encountered in conducting and applying CEA, i.e. identifying costs and relative effectiveness and consequences of health care interventions (e.g., pharmaceuticals), prevention programs, and policies. Approaches to formulating the problem, adopting a perspective for the analysis, measuring costs, evaluating consequences, discounting, and reflecting uncertainty are discussed. Emphasis is on acquiring skills necessary for becoming informed consumers of CEA, learning to appraise published literature, and developing simple cost-effectiveness models. Case studies demonstrate the use of CEAs. Exercises highlight methodological issues and the development of models in several in-class computer lab sessions. The computer lab sessions offer hands-on experience with the design of models in Microsoft Excel. The class is appropriate for students in the Pharmaceuticals Program. Students who take PM855 may not take PM807.
• SPH PM 820: Introduction to Quality Measurement and Evaluation
  This course sets out to answer a number of foundational and application-based questions for health services researchers and other health professionals focusing on evaluation of health care quality: What are some frameworks within which we can measure, evaluate, and improve quality of care' How we do reliably and validly measure quality' How do we use different types of data to measure and report on different dimensions of quality' What are ways in which quality data may be aggregated and what controversies surround those approaches' How do we appropriately profile providers and systems, and how do we best create and interpret composite measures in doing so' Throughout the semester, students will be able to answer these questions and apply this learning to practical data exercises and case studies.
• SPH PM 822: Advanced Quantitative Methods for Health and Social Policy Research
  This course builds on MS and PhD program with a quantitative focus by providing advanced methods and their applications to studies of health care outcomes, quality, and economics. Methods covered include: advanced measurement techniques such as item response theory and applications through computer adaptive testing, selecting the research design, meta-analysis, advanced statistics applied to grant proposals, and econometric methods using instrumental variables. Students develop an original paper based upon a secondary data analysis.
• SPH PM 827: Strategic Management of Healthcare Organizations
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPH719) or consent of instructor. - This course is designed to make the student aware of well-established and innovative best practices that are necessary for making strategic decisions in the competitive environment of health care. Each session offers an opportunity to explore various aspects of formulating, monitoring, and leading strategies while considering the complexity of the structure and processes in healthcare. Real-life projects engage the student in making evidence based and value driven decisions while being cognizant of culture, regulations and the dynamic nature of the industry. Discussions from the readings, case studies and assignments focus on developing systems thinking and strategic intuition that is vigilant of the drivers of change, leadership skills and countermeasures by competitors.
• SPH PM 828: Advanced Qualitative Methods
  Graduate Prerequisites: SPH SB818 or GMS MA 710 or consent of instructor. - This course will focus on the use of qualitative methods in understanding outcomes of care, such as patient-centered perspectives on illness and health care; processes of care, such as doctor-patient interactions and communication; and the organization of care, such as the impact of different organizational structures on the quality of care. Students will develop skills in the use of qualitative methods in health services research, including the procedures of focus groups, the use of in-depth interviews, naturalistic observations of health care practices, and ethnographic studies of health care organizations and client communities. The course is part of the PhD program in Health Services Research, but will be of interest to other students who wish to learn about utilizing qualitative methods in their research.
• SPH PM 832: Operations Management in Health Care
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPH717 & SPHPH719 & SPHPH718) or consent of instructor. - This course is designed to focus on the field of operations management (OM) in healthcare. Students will learn to apply OM principles to develop more effective operational processes, mitigate risks, and improve quality. Discussions from the text, case studies and assignments will focus on strategies and techniques of quality improvement processes, project management, work-flow and system design, and capacity planning. Additionally students will explore the intricacy, complexity and dynamics of logistics in healthcare. An industry based project will enable students to engage and implement several of the tools learned in class.
• SPH PM 833: Health Economics
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPH719) or consent of instructor. - This course develops the tools of basic microeconomic analysis and applies them to key health policy issues. It emphasizes the trade-offs involved in various choices within the health care economy, with particular attention to examination of issues related to the debate between pro-market and government regulatory approaches to health care policy. Topics include the role of risk and uncertainty in health and health care, the industrial organization of the health care sector, and how payment systems affect the incentives and behavior of patients, insurers, and providers.
• SPH PM 834: Planning and Regulating to Fix Health Care
  Graduate Prerequisites: SPHPH719 or consent of instructor. - Failures of competitive markets in health care have sparked public planning and regulation. But these, in turn, have not been very successful in addressing problems of access, cost, appropriateness/quality, or caregiver configuration. Examining cases of persisting health problems such as childhood lead poisoning and quality of nursing home care, this course dissects what has worked and why. We consider ways in which planning can be a guide to effective action, not a pretext for inaction. We examine ways to quantify harm caused by a problem, analyze causes of the harm, develop policies and programs to address those causes, and analyze the efficacy, cost, political feasibility, and managerial feasibility of specific programs. Each student prepares a realistic plan, grounded in evidence, to ameliorate harm to people's health caused by a persisting threat.
• SPH PM 835: Lean Management in Healthcare
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPH719 OR SPHPH720 OR SPHPH717) or consent of instructor. - This course is designed to prepare students to plan and successfully implement lean management driven processes in health care organizations. It teaches lean principles and provides the opportunity to complete a lean managed project. It therefore uses a blended format that includes a week long intensive program for training on lean concepts and tools, followed by a semester long field work on a quality improvement project using lean methodology with online and personal support.
• SPH PM 839: Implementation Science: Linking Research to Practice
  Implementation science is commonly defined as the study of methods and strategies to promote the uptake of interventions that have proven effective in routine practice, with the aim of improving population health. Often interventions tested in traditional research studies that are found to be effective do not translate into positive outcomes in practice or cannot be practically applied. Alternatively, other interventions that have potential to improve care will not the effectively implemented without practical tools to aid the implementation. Integrating research into practice is a major challenge, both during the period of a study and beyond. This course will address the complexities of integrating research and practice and of translating research into practice. Students will learn about the background and concepts of implementation research and implementation science and how they fit into health services research, key components of implementation research proposal and how they are reviewed, what evidence is in an evidence- based intervention and how evidence is identified and evaluated, frameworks to guide implementation studies, different implementation study designs, implementation outcomes, and about how to balance intervention fidelity with feasibility, as well as how interventions can be adapted for different populations and settings.
• SPH PM 840: Analysis of Current Health Policy Issues
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPH719) AND (SPHPH717 OR SPHEP714) - The purpose of this course is to arm students with the skills to debate, define, and defend health policy proposals. We will explore, in depth, several current health policy problems. The course will take an analytic case approach, identifying policy options and tools, then gathering information and applying data to evaluate outcomes, costs; winners and losers. Methods for finding and accessing information on the Internet are emphasized. This is a capstone course meant to be taken in the student's last semester.
• SPH PM 842: Health Economics for Health and Social Policy Research
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPH719) or PM814, one semester of calculus or consent of instructor - This course provides an understanding of principles of microeconomics and applied microeconomic analysis of public health policy issues sufficient to comprehend and conduct health services research. The over-arching philosophical issues facing the post health care reform world and the arguments defining the debate between pro-market and government regulatory approaches are addressed. The main focus is on domestic health economics; however, analytic methods developed in the course are applicable to foreign health care systems. Students may not take both PM833 and PM842 for degree credit.
• SPH PM 844: Health Policy and Policy-making for Public Health Researchers
  Graduate Prerequisites: For doctoral students in the health services research program. Others only with instructor approval. - This doctoral level course will offer students in the Health Services Research program an in-depth look at major health policy debates. Particular attention will be paid to the factors affecting policy making and the role of scholarship in this process. The role of public health in policy debates or the lack thereof will be an ongoing theme throughout the semester. The course begins with a foundation on the policy making process at the federal, state, and local levels. Using these tools, students will examine the history of health reform in America and abroad, including the development and implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the challenges and opportunities of payment and delivery reforms, the role of the Veteran's Health Administration, and mental and behavioral health. Students will apply theoretical concepts from the opening weeks to produce multiple types of deliverables about an issue of their choosing, including a blog post translating academic research for a broad policy audience, a literature review intended for researchers or potential funders, a manuscript in the style of a New England Journal of Medicine perspective intended for journalists and anyone participating in policy debates, and legislative testimony intended for policymakers.
• SPH PM 846: Advanced Quantitative Policy and Program Implementation and Evaluation
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPM822 & SPHPM828) or by permission of the instructor. - * The aim of this course is to provide advanced level graduate students with applied skills in quantitative policy analysis and program implementation and evaluation. To do so, we will review and further explore several topics of causal inference and research design that are partially introduced in other quantitative methods courses. Moreover, this course exposes students in an in- depth way to research projects completed by leading scholars in the field. The specific methods covered in this course include logic models, implementation evaluation, randomized experiments, and natural experiments applied to a broad spectrum of public policy problems and solutions. The course will integrate multiple skill sets, including quantitative modelling, statistical programming, research design, and proposal writing.
• SPH PM 851: Organizing and Advocacy for Health Policy Change
  Graduate Prerequisites: SPH PH719 - There is abundant evidence in public health that one of the most effective ways to improve population health is by changing the policies and structures that set the contexts in which people make their decisions about health, and through which they access their health care. To change these policies and structures, public health professionals should be familiar with existing techniques and technologies for mobilizing and expressing popular support and pressure within existing policy frameworks that often seem unresponsive to community-based public health concerns. This course introduces students to two key areas of knowledge in public health practice: 1) the principles and methods of community organizing and 2) campaigning for policy and structural change. A series of short assignments culminates in a final product: the creation of a campaign plan for changing public policy regarding a specific public health problem. Students will also choose an actual policy campaign, volunteer with that campaign, and use the course materials to reflect critically on their campaign experience.
• SPH PM 864: Contemporary Structures of Health Services
  This course is designed to provide an introduction to the objects of inquiry in health services research: the structures of health services that are the sites of organized processes that produce health outcomes. These structures include financial arrangements, e.g., insurance, ambulatory services, hospitals, systems for providing community-based care, and the socially organized relationships between organized services and their clienteles. These structures are examined in light of their constant evolution in changing social, economic, and political contexts.
• SPH PM 866: Theory in the Analysis of Health Services
  This course is an introduction to theory to inform analyses of the structures, processes, and outcomes of health services. Theoretical approaches, drawn from the social sciences, are reviewed in elucidating the evolving structures of health services, the providers' practices within organizations, and the relationships between providers and consumers of health care.
• SPH PM 874: Causal Inference for Health Services and Policy Research
  Public health research often entails asking and trying to answer questions about the causes of health outcomes. Answers to such causal questions require us to combine data (e.g., from randomized trials or observational studies) with assumptions to infer causal effects. This course will teach students to think critically and rigorously about the implications of study design and analysis for addressing public health questions. Students will develop a rigorous understanding of the statistical foundations of causal inference approaches, including classical regression models and extensions. They will also be asked to draw upon their own research experiences and prior training to evaluate public health studies.
• SPH PM 931: Directed Studies in HPM
  Directed Studies provide the opportunity for students to explore a special topic of interest under the direction of a full-time SPH faculty member. Students may register for a 1, 2, 3, or 4-credit directed study by submitting a paper registration form and a signed directed study proposal form. Directed studies with a non-SPH faculty member or an adjunct faculty member must be approved by and assigned to the department chair. Students are placed in a section by the SPH Registrar's Office according to the faculty member with whom they are working. Students may take no more than eight credits of directed study, directed research, or practica courses during their MPH education.
• SPH PM 932: Directed Research in HPM
  Directed Research provide the opportunity for students to explore a special topic of interest under the direction of a full-time SPH faculty member. Students may register for 1, 2, 3, or 4 credits. To register, students must submit a paper registration form and signed directed research proposal form. Students are placed in a section by the SPH Registrar's Office according to the faculty member with whom they are working. Students may take no more than eight credits of directed study, directed research, or practica courses during their MPH education.