Healthcare and Public Health Research and Management

Robert Dittus, MP, MPH	Area Leader
	robert.dittus@vanderbilt.edu (615) 936-3597 Office Hours: TBA New institute set to unite public health initiatives >>>

Description

The student experience in the area of Healthcare and Public Health Research and Management is designed around two tracks: 1) healthcare and public health research and 2) healthcare management. The research track is focused on hypothesis-driven investigation in a field of healthcare or public health research, which includes clinical epidemiology and outcomes research, clinical economics and management science, clinical improvement and operations research, epidemiology, health behavior and education, and health policy. Studies include examining new approaches to disease prevention, developing and examining new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies of care, improving the quality and safety of care delivery, improving the efficiency and equity of care, understanding the impact of patient and provider behaviors on health care delivery and outcomes of care, and examining and improving community health. The healthcare management track is focused on a healthcare management science internship that includes a quality improvement project. It is expected that the student will become a successful member of an active research program or clinical management team and will have a clearly defined project to be completed in the time allotted.

Specific goals addressed by student projects include:

• To design, implement and evaluate new structures and processes of care that are safe, timely, effective, efficient, patient-centered and equitable, including federal, state and professional policies; payment systems, and organizational systems of healthcare delivery.
• To discover, create and evaluate new content of healthcare delivery, including more effective, efficient, safe, timely, patient-centered and equitable methods of determining risk, screening tests for disease prevention, diagnostic tests and therapeutic interventions, and methods of determining prognosis.
• To discover, develop and evaluate new methods for the science of clinical improvement, including process improvement, organization change, and change management which will lead to approaches to continually improve the structures, processes and content of healthcare delivery.
• To understand and improve the impact of human and organizational behavior on the optimization of the process and outcomes of care.
  

Nature of the Student Experience

During the beginning of the second semester of VMS I, the students will become oriented to the Center for Health Services and Research and its faculty programs and projects, as well as to the Clinical Enterprise and its management structure. The student will select a track and a mentor, and then identify a specific project to develop. The project will be designed during the latter part of the second semester. During the summer, the student will be expected to complete an eight week block of full-time work on his or her projects, either in the Center for Health Services and Research (research track), or as part of a clinical management team (management track). He or she will also participate in a specially designed seminar series for students. In the Fall and Spring semester of VMS II, students will be expected to participate in peer seminars where they will present research results and manuscripts, and discuss project findings.