MPH - 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.

• Health systems reform
• Quality, efficiency and equity of healthcare
• Substance abuse and mental health
• Modeling, policy, operations and disease
• Pharmaceuticals, vaccines and medical devices
• Health and wellbeing
• Global Health

• The curriculum, didactic approaches and support system for students at the Department of Health Policy and Management have been designed to build a sense of community and collective education. From the summer before your first year, these arrangements immerse you in participatory learning and teamwork, in and out of class, to enable you to transition to the workforce with the soft skills necessary for success in today’s complex health care environment.
• Although all health policy programs impart a set of technical skills, HPM complements this with a commitment to strengthen students' conceptual abilities – to help you think in innovative and transformative ways. These will guide you in rethinking the ways public health issues and problems are discussed in contemporary politics.
• HPM takes a distinctive approach to professional development: We will help you to understand the options that exist among policy analytic paradigms – and to thoughtfully choose what kind of analyst you’d like to be in over the course of your professional career. In a nutshell, this involves a deep understanding of the relative strengths of three paradigms:
  • An analyst who works primarily with quantitative methods: including policy modeling, adept with numbers and projections,
  • An analyst committed to policy advocacy, using emotionally compelling narratives to change policy discourse, or
  • An analyst committed to clarifying values, who can help the public and policymakers imagine what health care could look like if transformed beyond its current foci and organizational arrangements.

The MPH degree requires a total of 20 course units. The MPH in Health Policy (HP) requires the student to complete or acquire an exemption from the following courses. Full time students must carry a minimum of 4 course units each semester. If a course is waived, a substitute course must be identified. In addition, all 2-year MPH students are required to complete an Applied Practice Experience (APE). Please refer to the Applied Practice Experience Guidelines for more information.

• EPH 505 Biostatistics in Public Health I - 1 unit
• EPH 507 Social Justice and Health Equity - 1 unit
• EPH 508 Foundations of Epidemiology for Public Health - 1 unit
• EPH 510 Health Policy and Health Care Systems - 1 unit
• EPH 513 Major Health Threats - 1 unit
• EPH 100/EPH 101 Professional Skills Series - 0 units
• EPH 521 Applied Practice Experience - 0 units (APE workplans must first be approved by the Office of Public Health Practice. Students are strongly encouraged to complete the APE in the summer before their 2nd year. If not, students will have opportunity to complete the APE requirement in fall or spring terms using the APE course - internship or independent project, or a practicum course.)

Required Courses for HP (6 course units)

• HPM 514 Health Politics, Governance, and Policy - 1 unit
• HPM 560 Health Economics and U.S. Health Policy - 1 unit
• HPM 583 Methods in Health Services Research - 1 unit
• HPM 586 Microeconomics for Health Policy and Health Management - 1 unit
• HPM 597 Capstone Course in Health Policy - 1 unit
• HPM 697 Health Policy Leadership Seminar - 0 units

One of the following:

• HPM 570 Cost-Effectiveness Analysis and Decision Making - 1 unit
• HPM 588 Public Health Law - 1 unit

Elective Courses (9 course units)

In HPM, students have the option to complete a master's thesis if there is a project of sufficient depth and complexity to merit an extended project of this scale. All policy students participate in the capstone seminar, which culminates in a project (15-20 page policy brief, with associated media strategy and implementation plan) on a topic of their choice that addresses health or healthcare-related concerns and aspires to produce some transformational change in health/social policies.

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