The Department of Health Policy and Management is a mission-oriented department concerned with improving the health care delivery system and mitigating public health risks in the United States and abroad. The department is dedicated to resolving major management and health policy problems through original research, advanced training, and dispute resolution.

Research priorities in the Department of Health Policy and Management are organized into nine broad areas:

• health financing and insurance, including the creation of new physician payment systems and the design of public policies dealing with rising insurance premiums

• management of health hazards, including use of risk assessment to set priorities for environmental health protection

• study of the causes and etiology of injury and the application of that work to the development and evaluation of prevention and intervention strategies and policy

• management of health care organizations, encompassing the application of corporate strategic-planning concepts to the challenges faced by health systems and pharmaceutical firms

• evaluation and management of medical technology, including the meta-analysis of data from clinical trials

• business and labor in health, including the negotiation of occupational safety and health care benefits in the collectivebargaining process

• international health, including evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of health programs in developing countries

• quality of health care, encompassing the design of better methods to measure quality

• health care reform, involving the development of partnerships between the department and the corporate community to explore critical aspects of health policy and management 

The department's problem-solving orientation is exemplified by its strong ties to leading health practitioners in hospitals, managedcare plans, community health centers, health advocacy groups, corporate medical departments, health and environmental consulting firms, state and local health departments, legislative committees, federal regulatory agencies, and international agencies. Practical skills are emphasized by an interdisciplinary faculty that includes management specialists, decision analysts, accountants, physicians, lawyers, policy analysts, economists, political scientists, and program evaluators.