300.713.01
Research and Evaluation Methods for Health Policy

Location
East Baltimore
Term
4th Term
Department
Health Policy and Management
Credit(s)
4
Academic Year
2012 - 2013
Instruction Method
TBD
Class Time(s)
Tu, Th, 9:00 - 10:20am
Lab Times
Thursday, 12:00 - 1:20pm (01)
Wednesday, 1:30 - 2:50pm (02)
Tuesday, 1:30 - 2:50pm (03)
Auditors Allowed
No
Available to Undergraduate
No
Grading Restriction
Letter Grade or Pass/Fail
Course Instructor(s)
Daniel Webster
Kitty Chan
Renan Castillo
Contact Name
Daniel Webster
Frequency Schedule
Every Year
Description
Introduces basic principles and methods for undertaking scientifically rigorous research with a special emphasis on evaluations of interventions intended to improve health and safety. Focuses on evaluations of health policies, health care delivery systems, and public health programs. Also prepares students to apply the results of health policy research done by others. Topics include the relationship between health services research, health policy research, health policy analysis and health program management; approaches for assessing the impact of health policy and health program implementation; common research designs and their strengths and weaknesses; measurement issues of reliability and validity; survey research techniques; qualitative research methods; quality of care and outcomes measurement; use of existing health and safety data; and basic cost benefit and effectiveness analysis.
Learning Objectives
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
  1. Critique published health services research and health policy/program evaluations
  2. Develop an appropriate study design for a research or evaluation project
  3. Describe the relationship between health services research and program evaluation
  4. Identify differences between basic and policy-relevant health services research projects and program evaluation
  5. Develop a conceptual framework for a study, showing the hypothesized causal variables and the expected outcomes
  6. Identify different types of study design, including observational, pre-experimental and experimental designs, and their inherent threats to internal and external validity
  7. Describe the basic issues related to measurement of variables
  8. Identify problems with measurement reliability and validity
  9. Identify aspects of quality of care and its measurement as they relate to health services research projects
  10. Discuss how survey research is used in health services research and evaluation, in terms of choice of sampling techniques, determination of sample size, and approaches to writing survey questions
  11. Demonstrate discuss of the basic concepts of cost benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis
  12. Identify and use appropriate secondary data and existing information sources in research projects
Enrollment Restriction
Restricted to graduate students only
Instructor Consent
No consent required
Special Comments

Students are encouraged to take HP I and II before this course. PhD/HPM students must register for lab 300.913.01. All other students should register for ONE of the other two lab time options 300.913.02 or 300.913.03