Doctor's degree in Population and International Health Health Systems at Harvard University

 

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Doctor's Degree in Population and International Health Health Systems at Harvard University

Harvard University
Doctor's degree
Population and International Health
Health Systems

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-Degree Requirements-
The doctoral programs are designed to prepare students both for professional leadership positions in the public or private sectors of public health and for academic careers in universities or research institutions. Recent graduates have taken positions with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Bank, and nongovernmental organizations and have assumed postdoctoral and teaching positions with universities in the United States and around the world.

Desired applicants have outstanding academic records, substantial relevant experience in the international public health arena, and professional interests relevant to the department. Applicants to the DPH program must hold an MPH and a prior doctoral degree. Though not required for the SD program, a master's degree is strongly recommended. Students are encouraged to enter the department's 80- credit master's degree program and apply to enter the doctoral program at a later date. Entry to the doctoral program will then depend upon outstanding performance in the master's degree program and acceptance through the regular doctoral program admission process.

In addition to schoolwide requirements, doctoral students must complete a common core of course work with a focus on global health. The core course work is completed in the first year. Core courses cover economics, ethics, politics, quantitative and qualitative methods, and population health measurement. The second year of the doctoral program usually involves both course work and research planning. Core courses cover economics, ethics, politics, quantitative and qualitative methods, and population health measurement.

Health care systems today provide the critical link between the development of interventions capable of achieving significant population health improvements and the realization of this improvement. As recently defined by WHO, health systems include four major functions: creation of resources, financing, service provision, and stewardship.

The health systems area of interest trains students to apply a multidisciplinary approach to advanced research on health care systems. The focus of this area is to develop new knowledge to improve the design, implementation, and evaluation of strategies to improve health and equity in middle- and lower-income countries through better health system performance. Through course work and applied research, students will learn to integrate theories and methods from economics, political science, and management and administration and to apply them to the critical international health system issues of the day.

Examples of research topics in this area of interest might include the impact on national health spending of changes in health system organization, the effect of decentralization on priority health service programs, consumer response to characteristics of public and private health care providers in developing countries, and evaluation of strategies to improve administrative and management efficiency in government services.

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