Core Course in Health Policy

All students take the full-year Core course in their first year, which serves as an introduction to health policy.   The purpose of Core is to provide a foundational, interdisciplinary understanding of health policy for students who will undertake research that advances knowledge and leads to improvements in health.

Learning Objectives

After completing the course, students should be able to:

  1. Describe and apply disciplinary frameworks and vocabulary used to formulate research questions in each discipline
  2. Understand the methodological approaches that each discipline takes in answering research questions
  3. Apply those frameworks in concert with one another to analyze policy tradeoffs and clearly communicate a case for or against specific policy options
  4. Identify the interplay between social determinants of health, including racism and other forms of systemic oppression, and health policy
  5. Anticipate the effects of policy on health equity, including consequences of health policies and practices that harm underserved groups
  6. Practice critical reading of innovative scientific and policy papers from the disciplines that inform health policy

 Fall 2022 syllabus and Spring 2023 syllabus