Master of Public Health

Health Services Concentration

Breadcrumb

Health Services Concentration

Focuses on organizational characteristics of health care delivery systems, providers, and economic forces that shape consumer and provider behavior.

The Health Services Concentration seeks to develop scientists experienced in the use of state of the art experimental and non-experimental research methods for the purpose of advancing fundamental knowledge of issues central to the improvement of population health by focusing on organizational characteristics of health care delivery systems, providers, and economic forces that shape consumer and provider behavior, as well as the policy environment in which these relationships exist.

The concentration explicitly seeks to train scientists to optimally contribute as part of multidisciplinary teams in academic posts, government agencies at the state, national and international levels, and in research arms of private sectors of health services delivery organizations. The concentration explicitly seeks to develop scientists skilled in the communication of scientific knowledge, equipped with leadership skills for the purpose of improving services and influencing health policy at the organizational, state, national, and international levels such that those policies lead to more equitable use of resources thus improving health outcomes. The competency-based curriculum provides students with a strong analytic foundation and general health services research orientation.

Studying the Impact of Medicaid Expansion

With their study that found fewer patients with end-stage kidney disease died within a year of starting dialysis in states that expanded Medicaid coverage, researchers in the School of Public Health are the first to find an association between Medicaid expansion under the ACA, and lower death rates in adults.

Learn more

Program Snapshot

Competencies

Students who earn an MPH in Brown with a concentration in Health Services should be able to do the following:

Critically evaluate forces that influence health system performance. (PHP 2400)
Assess inequities in health services outcomes. (PHP 2450)
Critically evaluate health services evidence. (PHP 2445)
Design a health services project. (PHP 2040 or PHP 2060)
Collect primary data regarding a health services topic. (PHP 2040 or PHP 2060)
Analyze data for a health services project. (PHP 2411)
Interpret the findings of a health services project. (PHP 2411)

Information for Students Who Matriculated Prior to Fall 2023

Courses

Health Services Concentration Courses:

Complete all the following Health Services Concentration Courses:

PHP 2400: The U.S. Health Care System: Case Studies in Financing, Concentration in Delivery, Concentration in Regulation and Public Health (Spring)
PHP 2450: Measuring and Improving the Quality of Health Care (Fall)
PHP 2445: Minding the Gap: The U.S. Healthcare Safety Net (Spring)
PHP 2411: Intro to Health Policy Analysis (Next Taught in Spring 2025)

Complete the following research methods course if you have chosen the qualitative analytic course sequence (PHP2506/2061):

PHP 2060: Qualitative Research Methods*

* Students taking the qualitative analytic sequence must also take PHP2061, Qualitative Analysis in Public Health Research, which will count as a core course.

Select one of the following research methods courses if you choose either of the quantitative analytic core course sequences (PHP2510/2511 or PHP2507/2508):

PHP2040: Survey Research Methods (Spring)
PHP2060: Qualitative Research Methods (Spring and Fall)

Thesis

All in-person students are required to complete a thesis. Students work with faculty advisors to design a thesis project appropriate to their interests and career path in health services.

Faculty