Doctoral students in Health Services Research improve population health by focusing on health care delivery systems, providers, the economic forces that shape consumer and provider behavior, and the policy environment in which these relationships exist.
The Ph.D. program explicitly seeks to train research scientists to contribute as part of multidisciplinary teams in academic, government, and private-sector research and health care organizations. The program emphasizes communication of scientific knowledge and development of leadership skills to improve the delivery of services and influence health policy at the organizational, state, national, and international levels. The competency-based curriculum provides students with a strong analytic foundation and general health services research orientation. Students may also select an emphasis area in pharmaceutical health services research, health economics, or comparative effectiveness research/evidence-based medicine.
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Health Services Research faculty are members of the Department of Health Services, Policy, and Practice and the School of Public Health, and are aligned with world-class research centers, such as the Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research, the Center for Evidence Synthesis in Health and the Center for Long-Term Quality and Innovation the Centers for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, the International Health Institute, the Center for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, and the Center for Statistical Sciences. Students are engaged in collaborative research with faculty and other students in many of these centers, as well as the Rhode Island Department of Health and assorted health care systems throughout the state, the U.S. and internationally.
Major areas of faculty activity include long term care research, pharmaceutical health services research, eliminating racial disparities, evaluation of state and national policies, and end of life care. Strengths of the program include its student-centric approach to learning, high faculty-to-student ratio, and hands-on experience conducting supervised research.