Health Policy (Management)
Health care is one of the most complex and fiercely debated industries in the country, and the ramifications of policy decisions reverberate through every sector of American life.
Students in the Health Policy (Management) program will learn how theories and concepts from fields such as technology and operations management, organizational behavior, organizational economics, and competitive strategy can be applied to - and further developed for understanding - health care organizations.
The PhD program in Health Policy (Management) prepares you to effect powerful change rooted in data-driven research on the managerial, operational, and strategic issues facing a wide range of organizations. From your home base at Harvard Business School (HBS), you will collaborate with faculty at Harvard Business School, Harvard Medical School, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and many of the world-renowned medical research facilities throughout the Boston area.
Health Policy (Management) doctoral students combine understanding developed in the classroom with a wide range of available resources to address critical questions with real-world applications for the health care industry.
Prospective students will apply to the PhD in Health Policy and select Management as their area of study.
Curriculum & Coursework
Our programs are full-time degree programs which officially begin in August. Students are expected to complete their program in five years. Typically, the first two years are spent on coursework, at the end of which students take a field exam, and then another three years on dissertation research and writing.
Program RequirementsResearch & Dissertation
Students in Health Policy (Management) begin research in the summer preceding their first year by working with an HBS faculty member. Over the first two years in the program, students are encouraged to explore their research interests as they complete relevant coursework. By third year, students are working on dissertation research, and by fourth year, students are launched into a solid research and publication stream, typically developing three publishable papers by the end of the program.
Recent questions students have explored include:
the patient role in health care service delivery;
implementation and management of information technology in health care delivery; and
navigating the complexities of digital healthcare delivery.
No other institution but HBS could have given me the same level of access to resources that span business, health policy, and medicine.
Student Profiles
Introduce Yourself
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