Advanced Professional MPH in Health Policy

The Health Policy program at Yale’s School of Public Health (Department of Health Policy and Management – HPM) offers a distinctive educational experience. We provide students with foundational skills in policy analysis, statistical methods, decision-analysis, communication skills and key conceptual frameworks from the social sciences. But we aspire to do more than to build skills: our goal is to empower graduates to become effective agents of change in the policy environments that shape health and health care – to grow into being leaders. This calls for fostering student’s passions, creativity and capabilities as social/policy entrepreneurs.

To this end, the program is designed around a small core of required courses, allowing students to shape their own distinctive programs of learning – particularly during their second year of study. Students design their own sequence of courses in health policy, and may specialize in particular substantive areas (e.g., addiction, health economics, vulnerable populations, global health or consumer decision making). Students bring together these distinct trajectories in an integrative capstone seminar in their final semester.

The scaffolding for these individual pathways often involves connecting students with various concentration areas within YSPH or research centers/institutes that are located around Yale. HPM faculty facilitate these connections so that students may take advantage of a range of opportunities on the Yale campus.

Students who best flourish in health policy at YSPH are those who are willing and eager to co-design with HPM faculty the sort of program of study that best fits their educational and professional aspirations. Graduates of the program in Health Policy are employed in both the public and private sectors, including federal and state agencies, for-profit and nonprofit health care organizations (typically in departments of government relations or strategic planning), and private consulting firms, as well as in research institutes and advocacy organizations. [see Employment Metrics]. Many of our graduates complement their MPH with additional education, ranging from clinical degrees to law school to doctoral programs in various disciplines.

• BIS 515 Accelerated Biostatistics - 2 units
• SBS 505 Accelerated Social Foundations of Health - 1 unit
• CDE 515 Accelerated Epidemiology - 1 unit
• EPH 510 Health Policy and Health Care Systems - 1 unit
• EPH 513 Major Health Threats - 1 unit

One of the following (public health practice requirements):

• EPH 500 Public Health Practicum - 1 unit
• HPM 555 Health Policy or Health Care Management Practicum - 1 unit
• HPM 556 Advanced Health Policy Practicum - 1 unit
• HPM 556 Advanced Health Policy Practicum - 1 unit
• EPH 555 Practicum in Climate Change, Sustainability, and Public Health - 1 unit
• EMD/SBS 584 Advanced Global Health Justice Practicum: Fieldwork - 1 unit
• EMD/SBS 588 Health Justice Practicum - 1 unit

• HPM 570 Cost-Effectiveness Analysis and Decision Making - 1 unit
• HPM 586 Microeconomics for Health Policy and Health Management - 1 unit
• HPM 514 Health Politics, Governance, and Policy - 1 unit
• HPM 583 Methods in Health Services Research - 1 unit

One additional health policy, management, or law-related course - 1 unit

One of the following capstone courses:

• HPM 597 Capstone Course in Health Policy - 1 unit
• SBS 574 Developing a Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Intervention - 1 unit
• CDE 617 Developing a Research Proposal - 1 unit
• EPH 557 Evidence-Based Decision Making in Global Health - 1 unit
• HPM 575 Evaluation of Global Health Policies and Programs - 1 unit
• EPH 608 - Frontiers of Public Health - 1 unit

Elective Courses (3 course units)

When you graduate from YSPH, you have options! Our curriculum is closely mapped to the core and departmental competencies so that you will have a foundation in the skills you need for a successful career in public health. See our Career Management Center pages to see where our alumni live and work after completing their MPH studies.

The core curriculum of the MPH program focuses on competencies in evidence-based approaches to public health (1–4), public health and health care systems (5–6), planning and management to promote health (7–11), policy in public health (12–15), leadership (16–17), communication (18–20), interprofessional practice (21), and systems thinking (22).

Upon completing the core curriculum, the student will be able to:

1. Apply epidemiological methods to the breadth of settings and situations in public health practice.
2. Select quantitative and qualitative data collection methods appropriate for a given public health context.
3. Analyze quantitative and qualitative data using biostatistics, informatics, computer-based programming and software, as appropriate.
4. Interpret results of data analysis for public health research, policy, or practice.
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5. Compare the organization, structure, and function of health care, public health, and regulatory systems across national and international settings.
6. Discuss the means by which structural bias, social inequities, and racism undermine health and create challenges to achieving health equity at organizational, community, and societal levels.
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7. Assess population needs, assets, and capacities that affect communities’ health.
8. Apply awareness of cultural values and practices to the design or implementation of public health policies or programs.
9. Design a population-based policy, program, project, or intervention.
10. Explain the basic principles and tools of budget and resource management.
11. Select methods to evaluate public health programs.
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12. Discuss multiple dimensions of the policy-making process, including the roles of ethics and evidence.
13. Propose strategies to identify stakeholders and build coalitions and partnerships for influencing public health outcomes.
14. Advocate for political, social, or economic policies and programs that will improve health in diverse populations.
15. Evaluate policies for their impact on public health and health equity.
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16. Apply principles of leadership, governance, and management, which include creating a vision, empowering others, fostering collaboration, and guiding decision-making.
17. Apply negotiation and mediation skills to address organizational or community challenges.
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18. Select communication strategies for different audiences and sectors.
19. Communicate audience-appropriate public health content, both in writing and through oral presentation.
20. Describe the importance of cultural competence in communicating public health content.
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21. Perform effectively on interprofessional teams.
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22. Apply systems-thinking tools to a public health issue.

Upon receiving an MPH degree with a concentration in Health Policy, the student will be able to:

• Identify the presence and drivers of key market failures affecting health and health care and propose concrete policy changes or market mechanisms to counteract resulting inefficiencies
• Critique empirical research intended to evaluate the causal impact of health policies and health system reforms
• Develop reform proposals for enhancing the delivery of health services that are politically sustainable and that recognize the relative strengths and weaknesses of market-based vs. regulatory or legal interventions
• Identify questions in public health policy and practice that may be amenable to model-based approaches
• Apply stochastic and deterministic modeling approaches, including computational methods for simulation and data analysis