It's summertime, and the living is, well, not exactly easy at HSPH. Hundreds of students are busy taking a wide range of intensive classes at the School as part of three separate programs, ranging from health care management to clinical research to basic public health concepts.
Maria Patyna, far right, registered for classes on July 2 for the Summer Session for Public Health Studies.
In all, the School will welcome more than 400 students this summer. Some are pursuing master's degrees, while others are simply becoming familiar with public health concepts.
The programs are the Summer Program in Clinical Effectiveness, Summer Session for Public Health Studies, and the Master of Science in Health Care Management program.
Both the numbers of students and the intensity of the courses make the School a busy, vibrant place in the summer, said Arnold Epstein, John H. Foster Professor of Health Policy and Management in the Department of Health Policy and Management, who co-established the Master of Science in Health Care Management Program and serves as co-director of the Summer Program in Clinical Effectiveness.
"You are teaching special, talented people and they are voracious learners,'' Epstein said. "All the ingredients are there to make for an extraordinary educational experience. The students are accomplished and bright and have a sense of what they want to get. And the courses are structured to give them exactly what they need.''
SUMMER PROGRAM IN CLINICAL EFFECTIVENESS
Some 156 students are newly enrolled in the Summer Program in Clinical Effectiveness, which is designed to teach clinicians the skills needed for clinical research. They join about 100 more students who have returned to the program this summer to pursue degrees.
Most are fellows, while some are faculty members looking to begin research careers. "We teach them epidemiology, study design, biostatistics, how to analyze data,'' said E. Francis Cook, professor of epidemiology and co-director of the program. "It's very intensive. Every student takes three classes a day.''
About 80 percent of the students come from Boston teaching hospitals, with the rest coming from outside the area. Although not a degree program, the seven-week course adds up to 15 degree credits, and about two-thirds of students go on to get a master's in public health or science from HSPH.
More than 1,700 physicians have completed the program in the 21 years it has been in existence.
Jeroan Allison, professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, cites the Summer Program in Clinical Effectiveness as being critical to his professional development as a researcher.
"I think the summer program was a turning point in my career,'' he wrote in an email. "Furthermore, if the program had not been in the summer, I could never have attended. When I came, I knew I was interested in outcomes research, but certainly did not have any of the necessary tools. At that point, I had done only clinical work, no research. I found the coursework to be directly relevant to my intended career path as a clinical researcher.''
Today, Allison, who attended the program in 1997, is co-editor-in-chief of Medical Care and has published more than 75 scientific papers.
SUMMER SESSION FOR PUBLIC HEALTH STUDIES
A parallel summer program, the Summer Session for Public Health Studies, was developed in 1993 for health professionals in training or those considering a career change who want to strengthen their public health skills.
The program enrolls 150 to 175 students each summer, about half of whom are physicians, said Roberta Gianfortoni, director and assistant dean for professional education. Although not a degree program, the session allows students to earn credits toward degrees. About one-third are incoming HSPH students who are starting their degree programs. There are two sessions during the summer.
"The focus is on quantitative skills and population studies,'' Gianfortoni said. "We also offer one or more courses that fulfill basic core requirements for a degree in public health."
Participants include public health professionals, primary care practitioners, physicians engaged in the evaluation of health care delivery and management, physicians in training, and candidates for a part-time MPH program.
Lenny Lopez, an associate physician and research fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital, enrolled in the summer session while pursuing his MPH degree in 2005. He earned his degree and then chose to deepen his research training.
"I'm trying to learn all the methods I need to do research projects on health disparities in minority populations,'' he said.
Lopez said he is about to publish two papers that stemmed directly from classes he took in the summer sessions.
"HSPH has been a wonderful, bottomless place for personal and career growth over the last three years,'' he said. "It's hard to beat.''
MASTER OF SCIENCE IN HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT
The Master of Science in Health Care Management program is the smallest of the three, with 18 students in the entering cohort. It is not a summer program per se, but starts in July and allows students to complete the program over two years without going full-time.
From left to right, Jamie Grebosky, Dory Altmann, and Marleece Barber from the Master of Science in Health Care Management program
Most students are high-level physicians who are also managers. The average age is 45 to 55 years. After spending three weeks here in the summer, they return to HSPH five times between September and May for four-day weekends. This cycle repeats for the second year.
"They come from all over the United States, and we've had them come from as far away as Guam and Poland,'' said administrative director Sharon O'Brien. "These students are mature physicians who are already in positions of significant management responsibility. They are focusing on applied skills to make them more effective leaders. Some are CEOs or department chiefs, but very few have had formal management training.''
The program has run since 1999 and meets a growing need for physicians who want management training but who don't want to leave their jobs or families for an extended period, she said.
Robert Faillace, chairman of cardiovascular services at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, NJ, is entering his second year in the program.
"This has given me the knowledge, skills, ability, and tools to perform my job at a higher level,'' said Faillace, who noted he had just one week of management training before starting the program. "I've used everything I've learned to better my department and the institution. The teachers are all outstanding, and my classmates are the finest group of people I've ever been with in my entire life. This has changed my professional life in a very positive manner.''
—ML
For more information about the HSPH Executive and Summer Programs, see:
Summer Program for Clinical Effectiveness
Copyright, 2007, President and Fellows of Harvard College
