Training in Health Policy Research

The Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies provides training in health policy research for predoctoral students at UCSF as well as for postdoctoral and mid-career scholars. The goals of the PRL-IHPS training program are:

1. To train diverse stakeholders to conduct outstanding health policy research;
2. To foster effective policy communication across the diverse professions, “languages,” and disciplines of health policy;
3. To translate research into action using methods and findings that are sufficiently well-grounded that one can confidently offer them for use by policymakers.

We believe the scope of health policy is wide. It ranges from the development of new systems for financing, delivering and measuring high-quality healthcare; to evaluation of political, programmatic, and organizational initiatives to improve population health; to basic social and behavioral science research on health determinants. We emphasize the importance of thoughtfully and self-reflectively engaging perspectives, tools, and theories from multiple academic and professional fields in pursuit of the effective and responsible translation of research into policy and practice.

Program and Curriculum

The program includes scholars with backgrounds in the clinical sciences, health services, humanities, policy science, public health, and social and behavioral sciences. The program can last for 1-3 years depending on the trainees’ background, goals, and prior preparation.

We coordinate our didactic offerings with research and training programs around the campus and the Bay Area including:

• the Institute for Health and Aging (IHA) and other departments and programs at the UCSF School of Nursing;
• the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at the UCSF School of Pharmacy;
• the School of Medicine’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, Division of General Internal Medicine, Division of General Pediatrics, and Training in Clinical Research Program;
• the University’s Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) and UCSF’s newly-organized Pathway to Discovery in Health and Society;
• non-UCSF partners including the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute.
  
  Our curriculum includes:

* writing and works-in-progress seminars;
* ethical issues related to project sponsorship, paper authorship, and collaborative relationships;
* guest speakers including fellow-invited speakers, IHPS Grand Rounds, and the Chancellor’s Health Policy Research Lectures;
* additional coursework including:

+ principles and approaches to policy analysis;
+ project design and grant writing;
+ health policy translation;
+ quantitative and qualitative methods in health policy research.

Fellows participate in research under the guidance of a research mentor. In general, fellows are engaged in 1-3 research projects at UCSF as well as working on their own independent research projects. In addition to the research mentors, fellows also have a career mentor who helps ensure that fellows make good progress while in the program towards their career goals.

Inquiries

Ernestine Florence
Fellowship Coordinator
Email: Ernestine.Florence@ucsf.edu
Phone: 415.476.4924
Fax: 415.476.0705