Health Policy Related Courses

The University of Chicago

Health Care and Health Policy Related Courses

HARRIS SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY

Advanced Health Economics

Most developed economies spend substantial fractions of their incomes on improving health through investments in health enhancing activities, in health care markets, and other means. In particular, in the last half century there has been substantial growth in the amount of income devoted to health care expenditures. Also, in developed and developing countries alike the public sector is heavily involved in the both the financing and production of health care; about two thirds of health expenditures on average are made by the public sector. This course will discuss advanced topics in the economic aspects of health and health care markets. The discussion will be focused on, but not limited to, health care markets in the United States. Particular attention will be paid to the effects and role of public sector interventions in health care markets including the subsidization of health care demand and the regulation of health care production.  Instructor:  Tomas Philipson

Advanced Methods in Comparative Effectiveness Research

The objective of this advanced graduate course is to prepare highly motivated students to perform cutting edge applications of comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness methods to the study of medical and public health interventions. Lectures will review classic theoretical and empirical papers in both program evaluation and cost-effectiveness analysis with a major focus on the application of advanced methods to practical problems in medical care and public health. Topics to be covered will include: the science of evaluation – definition, identification and estimation, observational data methods, Bayesian methods for meta-analysis, simulation modeling with probabilistic sensitivity analysis and cost-effectiveness acceptability curves, and value of research methods.  Instructor:  David Meltzer

Comparative Healthcare Systems & Pharmaceutical Policies: Lessons and Opportunities for Reform

This course discusses two major health policy challenges facing our world today: reforming healthcare systems and securing access to medicine to patients around the world. The course has two sections: the first one discusses the sociopolitical and economic foundation of healthcare systems, familiarizes students with current challenges facing these systems and provides critical knowledge and skills to effectively design and implement successful health policy reforms. The section focuses on health system structure, financing, organization and regulation; on system reform process; and on challenges in pharmaceutical policy (pricing, reimbursement, access to medicine and pharmaceutical budget control).  Section two uses the Case-Based Learning methodology to familiarize students with US and international health systems and provides students the opportunity to use learning from section one to propose sound policy reforms. During this section, students will also have the chance to discuss health systems issues with potential guest speaker(s) who has (ve) lead reform(s) in his/her country.  Instructor:  Joseph Antoun

Cost Benefit Analysis

The goals of this course include learning (1) how to “read,” or judge, a cost-benefit analysis; (2) how to incorporate elements of cost-benefit analysis into policy work; and (3) when CBA is a good tool to use and when it isn’t. This class also presents an opportunity to reflect on “big picture” issues of how to treat uncertainty and risk; discount costs and benefits received in the future; value lives saved; and manage other difficult matters. In brief, this class offers a comprehensive treatment of the cost benefit analysis methodology, with attention devoted to the microeconomic underpinnings of the technique as well as applications drawn from many areas, including health, the environment, and public goods.  Instructor:  Paula Worthington

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

The purpose of this course is to better acquaint students with the techniques for economic evaluation of interventions or policies that have a major impact on health. Unlike the approaches such as cost benefit analysis used to inform public decisions in other areas, health evaluations rely on a set of tools that do not monetize directly all outcomes of the policy or intervention being considered. Instead, some outcomes are left in either physical units or summary utility terms, and then thresholds are set for decision-making. The major issues addressed in the course will be: the rationale for economic evaluation; formulating the problem and choosing a perspective for the analysis; identifying and measuring outcomes and effectiveness; identifying, enumerating, and valuing the inputs to form an economic measure of costs; dealing with timing of costs and outcomes; reflecting various types of uncertainty in the analysis; and reporting the results.  Instructor:  Willard Manning

Economics and Public Health in the Developing World

This course uses the tools of applied microeconomics to explore major public health issues in the developing world. After establishing an economic approach to disease and health behavior we consider several topics including HIV, malaria, diarrhea, and air pollution. The course will also examine how patients interact with doctors and pharmacists in health care markets. Each topic will feature several papers that illustrate a modern approach to the issue and highlight useful empirical strategies. Along the way, the merits of common policy responses to these problems will be weighed.  Instructor: Daniel Bennett

From Health Policy to Clinical Practice

The goal of this course is to build on basic understandings of the structure, financing, and regulation of the American health care system to explore the everyday implications to the clinical practice of medicine and provision of health care.  The course will look to explain the effects of current policies on clinical practice as well as examine the future implications presented by the newly enacted health care reform legislation.  The course will take a practical perspective on the opportunities and constraints placed on providers and health care systems as they attempt to balance cost, quality, and access.  Specific areas of current practice to be discussed are the payment of physicians (including fee-for-service, capitation, pay for performance, and the promoted promise of accountable care organizations), medical malpractice and patient safety, cost-effectiveness analysis, end-of-life care, and patient behavior modification.  Prior exposure to health policy via other coursework in the policy school, law school, social service administration, or medical school is helpful but not necessarily required.

Instructor:  Elmer Abbo

Health Care and Health Reform

This course analyzes the economics of health and medical care in the United States with particular attention to the role of government and the rationale and effects of recent health care reforms. These reforms will be evaluated in how they relate to the basic workings of the US health care sector. The course will examine these underpinnings in terms of the demand and supply for health care. This includes both the structure and the consequences of public and private insurance as well as market structures in professional training, specialization and compensation, among providers, as well as the determinants and consequences of technological change in medicine. The course then examines the recent proposals and initiatives for health care reform in light of these more basic features affecting the US health care market place.  Instructor: Tomas Philipson

Policy Interventions to Improve Children's Health and Human Capital

This class will draw from the literature in developmental psychology, economics, and public policy to study and assess the effectiveness of interventions targeted at children, families, schools, and neighborhoods that aim to improve children's health, achievement, and long-run success. The class will consider U.S. interventions as well as those in other countries. Instructor: Ariel Kalil

Survey Research Methodology

Surveys provide critical data used to inform and evaluate public policy and are used as general surveillance of key indicators of economic, social and population health. This course is designed to introduce participants to the science and current practice of survey research in order to become better consumers of the survey data by knowing how to critically assess the quality of the survey estimates for specific public policy purposes. This course will introduce the set of principles that are the basis of standard practice in the field. Topics include: inference in social research; survey design; coverage, sampling, and non-response; questionnaire and question design; modes of data collection; interviewing; post-collection processing; scientific integrity and ethics; history of survey research; evaluation of surveys. The course will include exposure to online tabulation of survey data and a quarter-long project in which small groups will produce a grant application to conduct a survey and present the results at the end of the quarter.  Instructor:  Michael Davern

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SERVICE ADMINISTRATION

Aging and Health Policy

This course begins with an examination of the historical development of public policies on aging.  Students will use an understanding of this history to critically examine current policies and programs. In particular, attention is given to the design and delivery of services and their implications for the social, economic, and physical welfare of the aged and their caregivers. The unique dynamics that accompany the initiation, implementation, and impacts of aging policies are considered as students contemplate the design and development of future policy.  Instructor:  Colleen Grogan

Aging and Mental Health

This course integrates the theories and practice skills needed for effective clinical work with older adults and their families. The developmental process of aging, fostering an alliance, overcoming stigma, use of self, therapeutic bias, and ethical dilemmas with this population are covered. Specific focus is given to the significance of the older person’s history, background, and culture as well as understanding behavior within the environmental context. Students will develop assessment, diagnostic and treatment skills with older adults. Similarities and differences in practice techniques with other age groups are reviewed and generic principles identified. Concrete service delivery and care management, as well as individual, family, and caregiver interventions, are addressed. The class format includes didactic material, case examples, films, and group discussions.  Instructor:  Sharon Dornberg-Lee

Biology and Sociology of AIDS 

This seminar course explores the biology and sociology of HIV and AIDS (local and global perspectives), with an emphasis on social policy and public health implications of HIV prevention and treatment. Roughly half the course will be concerned with the biology of the HIV virus, the epidemiology of HIV spread, HIV treatments such as HAART.  The other half of the course will be concerned with social, political, and policy concerns: the impact and shortcomings of behavior-change and structural HIV prevention interventions, new clinical and policy interventions to treat HIV-related diseases, policies that finance and implement HIV treatment and care, the challenge of global HIV treatment and prevention.  Instructors: Harold Pollack and John Schneider

Disability: Medical, Ethical and Psychosocial Issues

This course examines a broad range of topics relating to disability and society. We will study traditional medical models of illness as well as social and minority paradigm models that arose from the disability rights movement. We will examine the impact of disability throughout the lifespan, review theories of adaptation, and discuss clinical practice concerns/interventions. Participants will have opportunities to study specific disabilities that interest them within the framework of the course. Social policy, disability-related entitlements, and recent legislation also will be covered, along with controversial disability ethics concerns such as physician-assisted suicide and health care rationing.  Instructor:  Rebecca Brashler

Health Policy

This course is an in-depth look at contemporary health policy issues. We tackle four major health policy issues in the class. For each issue we examine the policy problem/providing some historical perspective on emergence of the issues and consider various policy alternatives to address the problem. We analyze policy solutions according to their ability to improve health care access and quality and their ability to keep health care costs under control. We will also consider whether these programs are envisioned as part of a broader social entitlement package or as individual benefits.  Instructor:  Colleen Grogan

Health Social Work

This is an advanced practice course designed for social workers who practice in healthcare settings. The four purposes of this course are: 1) to provide an overview of the varieties of social work direct practice in healthcare settings, 2) to provide a foundational understanding of the U.S. healthcare system where it frequently intersects with social work direct practice, 3) to explore areas where social work training is uniquely useful in delivering and administering healthcare services, and 4) to prepare students for career positions as health social workers and clinical leaders in health organizations. This is a class about how social workers can work effectively in health services systems. Each week will have a distinct focus on the diseases, disorders, and conditions health social workers most frequently encounter in practice. These units will involve learning about the disease incidence/prevalence in populations social workers are likely to serve, the psychosocial stressors associated with the disorder or condition, and specific, evidence based clinical interventions that health social workers can benefit from using in practice.  Instructor:  Steve McMillin

Introduction to the Health Services System

This class provides a comprehensive examination of the U.S. Healthcare System and how it works, including the delivery of clinical care. health insurance coverage, biomedicine and technology. We also weave elements of the Affordable Care Act (the ACA -- Health Reform) throughout the course and compare the U.S. health system with those in other major developed and emerging markets.  Course Instructors:  Fabrice Smieliauskas and Jesse Peterson Hall.

Policy Analysis: Methods and Applications

This master’s-level course provides students with the basic tools of policy analysis.  Students will learn and apply tools of decision analysis in written group assignments and in an accompanying computer lab. Students will also learn and apply concepts of cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit, and cost-utility analysis with social service, medical, and public health applications. Topics to be covered include: Decision trees for structured policy analysis, the economic value of information, analysis of screening programs for HIV and child maltreatment, sensitivity analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis of life-saving interventions and programs to reduce behavioral risk, valuing quality of life outcomes, ethical issues in cost-benefit analysis, analysis of  “irrational” risk behaviors.  Substantive areas covered include: HIV/substance use prevention, school-based prevention of sexual risk, smoking cessation, and housing policy. In the associated learning lab, students will use computer decision software to build and analyze decision trees in policy-relevant examples. They will conduct one-way and two-way sensitivity analysis to explore the impact of key parameters on cost-effectiveness of alternative policies. Students will receive an introduction to dynamic modeling in the context of HIV prevention, cancer screening, and transportation programs. Prerequisite: One prior course in microeconomics.  Instructor:  Harold Pollack

Special Issues in Health Care Management

With the passage of major new health care reform legislation in the U.S., work to improve the health care delivery system continues at a rapid pace.  This course addresses issues of quality, safety, effectiveness, equity, timeliness, and efficiency in health care.  Using the Institute of Medicine’s Crossing the Quality Chasm as the framework, this course examines health care organizations and their interplay with patients, clinicians, the community, and the larger environment including policy, payment, and accreditation.  The work of Elinor Ostrom, Pulitzer Prize winning economist for her work on Governing the Commons will be considered as it relates to health care.  Key concepts in promoting organization effectiveness such as organization culture, leadership, and communication also will be addressed.  The role of government and public-private sector organizations like the Joint Commission, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and the National Quality Forum in promoting quality improvement will be covered.  An overall goal of this course is for students to deepen their understanding about the context in which they will be practicing and working, so that they can be most effective in their current and future roles in the health care field.  Instructor:  Laura Botwinick

Strategic Management: External Factors

This course will introduce students to the increasingly important impact that external market factors have on policy development and service delivery models in the field of social work and in health care services. The impact of market factors is experienced at multiple levels-from public policy maker to direct service staff-thus this course emphasizes both micro- and macro-level concepts. The class materials will cover a range of concepts that are key to understanding market-driven management, including strategic management, strategic alliances, strategic planning, social entrepreneurship, needs assessments, market research, organizational development, marketing, and ethics. Case studies will be used, including examples from the lecturer's national consultation practice. Guest speakers who have experience with strategic management and market driven social work and health care practices will share their expertise with the class.  Instructor:  Janice Pyrce

BOOTH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Commercializing Innovation – Tools to Research and Analyze Private Enterprises

The purpose of this class is to equip students with the tools necessary to analyze the strategy and underlying economics of a potential private equity investment and to communicate their point of view in an effective manner to Partners or to a potential Funding Source. This is an intensive course (12 to 14 hours/week) involving both traditional class lectures and experiential learning. The course will require that students develop primary and secondary research skills, financial modeling capability, presentation skills, and the ability to do meaningful analysis (i.e. to think creatively and logically).  Instructor: Scott F. Meadow

New Social Ventures

In this course, groups of students will develop an idea for an innovative, startup social organization. They will conduct research to create a detailed plan for its creation and growth and pitch the plan to faculty, social entrepreneurs, domain experts, foundation officers, and philanthropists. The definition that we will use to determine if an idea belongs in the course is that social organizations are designed, managed and governed to sacrifice profit for mission in a substantial way or to seek funding from investors who are willing to sacrifice returns for mission. Compared to traditional for-profit organizations, such organizations rely in varying degrees on different funding institutions, different governance mechanisms, different ways to measure performance, different marketing, and different HR practices. These organizations may be structured as for-profit or non-profits. Because of these differences in management and the institutional structure supporting them, a distinct curriculum is appropriate, even if the definition excludes many organizations that create substantial social value. Instructor:  Robert Gertner

Operations Management: Business Process Fundamentals

This core course focuses on understanding levers for structuring, managing, and improving a firm's recurring business processes to achieve competitive advantage in customer responsiveness, price, quality, and variety of products and services. These levers are applicable to health care organizations. Processes within firms, as well as between firms, i.e. supply chains, are explored. The fundamental principles underlying state-of-the-art practices, such as Quick Response, Just-in-Time and Time-Based Competition, are explored so that students learn to critically evaluate these and other operational improvement programs.  Instructors:  All Faculty teaching this class

Social Entrepreneurship Lab

Social ventures take the form of both non-profits and for-profits and seek to better the world in such industries as education, food systems, microfinance, workforce development, public health and community development. This class will incorporate different social venture business models and industries through lab projects and theoretical discussions in class. The lab projects are intended to enhance the understanding of the challenges of operating and growing social ventures where ‘profits’ are often sacrificed for mission. Instructor:  Linda Darragh

COMMITTEE ON CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE (CCTS)

Biomedical Tech: Innovation, Investment, Management

This course is targeted to MA and PhD level students in business, policy and related disciplines with an interest in innovation in the pharmaceutical, diagnostics and medical device industries.  It aims to provide complementary scientific, economic, and regulatory perspectives on these global markets. We focus on issues that differentiate investments and strategic decision-making in these industries from most others and underlie current market dynamics, including financing, regulation and policy and evolving organizational forms.  The course format will be a mix of lectures by course instructors and presentations by guest speakers.  

Instructor:Rena Conti

Introduction to Global Health

Introduction to Global Health will review the major factors that influence the health of individuals and populations worldwide and provide a basic understanding of the complexities of global health. Students will study both broad and disease-specific global health challenges and strategies for responding to them; key institutions and stakeholders; environmental impacts on health; population health; maternal and child health; health and human rights; and international and legal frameworks within global health diplomacy. Discussion of ethical principles that underlie global health activities as well as the interdisciplinary nature of global health will be emphasized throughout the course.  Career opportunities in Global health will also be discussed at the end of the course.   Instructors: C. ‘Sola’ Olopade and John Schneider

Medical Sociology

This course surveys the literature in several core areas of medical sociology with a focus mostly on social behavior and health, and secondarily on the institutions and organizations associated with the delivery of health care and medical education. We first introduce the theoretical orientations focusing on social construction of medical knowledge and illness, medicine as a powerful institution, and labeling theory and stigma. This is followed by discussion of empirical studies in three dominant research arenas. First, in social epidemiology, we examine the social variations in health associated with demographic characteristics, SES, social support, and religious participation. Second, in social stress and illness, we examine the stress process model and its ramifications, the role of social support, and coping. Finally, we examine organization of health care and health care utilization. The objectives are for students to obtain an understanding of key concepts, theories, methods, and research findings in these areas, but most important, to internalize an understanding of how “social” health and illness is.   Instructor: Gavin Hougham

Topics in Global Health

This course is designed to address specific medical issues of global significance including maternal and child health, communicable and non-communicable diseases, emerging diseases as well as the implications for human health of population growth, migration, environmental deterioration and humanitarian disasters. Discussions on the approach to developing a successful global health research and career opportunities in Global health will also be covered.  Instructors:  Christopher ‘Sola’ Olopade and Olufunmilayo “Funmi” Olopade

THE LAW SCHOOL

Health Law and Policy

This course explores the policies that underlie regulation of the provision of health care in the United States. We will begin with an examination of the principal government programs for financing the delivery of health care in America - Medicare and Medicaid. This first part of the course will focus on how these programs seek to resolve the tension between controlling costs, promoting quality, and assuring access. Focus will then move to a consideration of policy issues relating to managed care organizations, including the functioning of these organizations and the impact of ERISA on their actions. Next, we will study issues relating to the behavior of physicians, hospitals, and other health care institutions. Included will be a focus on the impact of the antitrust, labor, and tax laws on these entities. Instructor:  Jack Bierig

Health Law

This course surveys the law and policy applicable to health care financing and delivery in the United States. The course will split its time between reviewing the new health care bill and covering traditional topics such as informed consent, medical malpractice liability, drug regulation, ERISA preemption, Medicare, Medicaid, and the application of antitrust law to health care.  Instructor:  Anup Malani

Law and the Mental Health System

The course examines the interrelationship between legal doctrine; procedural rules; medical, cultural, and social scientific understandings of mental disability; and institutional arrangements affecting the provision of services to the mentally disabled. Consideration is given to admission to and discharge from mental health facilities, to competency to consent to or to refuse treatment, to surrogate decision-making for those found incompetent, to the rights of those confined in mental health facilities; to discrimination against the mentally disabled, and to the rights of the mentally disabled in the criminal justice system.  Instructor:  Mark J. Heyrman

Medicine, Law, and Ethics

The goal of this seminar is to help the student gain a practical framework by which to approach ethical and legal issues in medicine. Through use of real world case studies, it will explore three major ethical themes in medicine: autonomy, beneficence, and fairness. After discussing the philosophical underpinning of these principles, we will address how these principles can help guide analysis of the contemporary legal and ethical questions faced by physicians and attorneys. Finally, we will use our skills and understanding to approach cutting edge and future ethical dilemmas. Instructor:  Sandeep Mangalmurti

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH STUDIES

Advanced Epidemiologic Methods

This course examines some features of study design, but is primarily focused on analytic issues encountered in epidemiologic research. The objective of this course is to enable students to conduct thoughtful analysis of epidemiologic and other population research data. Concepts and methods that will be covered include: matching, sampling, conditional logistic regression, survival analysis, ordinal and polytomous logistic regressions, multiple imputation, and screening and diagnostic test evaluation. The course follows in sequence the material presented in “Epidemiologic Methods.”  Instructor:  Dezheng Huo

Demography of Aging & the Life Course

This is a course in population aging and its social, economic and political ramifications. It will examine basic models of demographic and health transitions, trends in aging and health status, characteristics of medical care and long-term care, and the implications of these for the development of public policy. Emphasis will be placed on life course approaches to the study of aging. Specific topics include health, functional status, and well-being; socioeconomic status and inequality; family structure and living arrangements; formal and informal long-term care; early life predictors of health and longevity; generational equity; neighborhood social context. We will begin with micro-level considerations such as health and functional status, then shift the unit of analysis to family formation and social networks then to neighborhood effects. We will use the City of Chicago as case study. We will examine the extent to which age, and aging neighborhoods, shape political and social forces in our community. To extend this then, we will explore in depth the 1995 Chicago heat wave; we will pay particular attention to the roles that social isolation and neighborhood social context play in the lives of older adults.  Instructor:  Kate Cagney

Developing Health: Transitions in Global Health & Development

This course examines the critical and changing relationships between global health and development, drawing on key concepts from public health and employing concrete examples from around the world. Improvements in public health have frequently been attributed to achievements in economic development, yet questions of exactly how development might lead to better health outcomes remain as open as they are crucial. We will use health transition theory as a point of departure for interdisciplinary investigations of key historical and contemporary attempts to describe and predict the linkages between global health and development, and how they inform public health research and practice.  Instructor:  Josh Garoon

Epidemiologic Methods

This course expands on the material presented in "Principles of Epidemiology," further exploring issues in the conduct of epidemiologic studies. The student will learn the application of both stratified and multivariate methods to the analysis of epidemiologic data. The final project will be to write the "specific aims" and "methods" sections of a research proposal on a topic of the student's choice. Instructor:  Kurina Lianne

Health Services Research Methods

The purpose of this course is to better acquaint students with the methodological issues of research design and data analysis widely used in empirical health services research. To deal with these methods, the course will use a combination of readings, lectures, problem sets (using STATA), and discussion of applications. The course assumes that students have had a prior course in statistics, including the use of linear regression methods.  Instructor:  Tamara Konetzka

Health Status Assessment:  Measurement and Inference

This course will be an introduction to health status assessment focused on measurement and survey design.  We will address two central questions:  1) How do we measure health status?; and 2) How do we relate the data to possible inferential populations?  Topics will include the fundamentals of study design and theory in health status assessment, internal and external validity, measurement validity, questionnaire construction, scaling and scoring, sampling methodology, uses and limitations of outcomes data, and survey implementation.  By the end of the course, students should be able to critique and evaluate existing health status measures and to weigh the costs and benefits of using an “off-the-shelf” measure as compared to designing a new instrument.  Throughout the course, students will learn about current data collection efforts at the University of Chicago. Instructor:  Kathleen Cagney     

Issues in Women's Health

The course will focus on important sources of morbidity and mortality in women, such as heart disease, breast cancer, depression, eating disorders, and HIV.  In addition to learning about the etiology, biology, and epidemiology of these conditions, we will explore related social, historical, political and cultural issues. The course will be comprised of presentations by the instructor, guest lectures by clinical experts in the condition of interest, and student-led discussions of readings.  Instructor:  Kurina Lianne

Local and Global Approaches to Infections Disease Epidemiology

This intermediate-level epidemiology course will provide an up to date perspective on forgotten, contemporary and emerging infections. The course lectures and readings will provide a rigorous examination of the interactions among pathogens, hosts and the environment that result in disease in diverse populations. In addition to the demographic characteristics and the behaviors of individuals that are associated with a high risk of infection, we will examine complex aspects of the environment as they pertain to disease transmission. These include poverty, globalization, social networks, public health, and racial and ethnic disparities. Additionally, we will discuss examples of the use of molecular epidemiology that demonstrate the changing characteristics of certain pathogens. Local and global approaches will be applied to case studies from the United States, Asia and Africa. The epidemiology of human immunodeficiency virus (and other sexually transmitted infections), tuberculosis, malaria, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), leprosy and influenza, among others, will be addressed.  Instructors:  Michael David and John Schneider

Principles of Epidemiology

Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health and disease in human populations. This course introduces the basic principles of epidemiologic study design, analysis and interpretation, through lectures, assignments, and critical appraisement of both classic and contemporary research articles. The course objectives include: (1) To be able to critically read and understand epidemiologic studies; (2) To be able to calculate and interpret measures of disease occurrence and measures of disease-exposure associations; and (3) To understand the contributions of epidemiology to clinical research, medicine and public health.  Instructor:  Benjamin B. Lahey

ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology of Disability

This seminar undertakes to explore “dis/ability” from an anthropological perspective that recognizes it as a socially constructed concept with implications for our understanding of fundamental issues about culture, society, and individual differences. The course will explore a wide range of theoretical, legal, ethical and policy issues as they relate to the experiences of persons with disabilities, their families, and advocates. At the conclusion of the course, participants will make presentation on fieldwork projects conducted during the quarter.  Instructor:  Fred Morris

COMPARATIVE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Mediation, Moderation, & Spillover Effects

This course is designed for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students from social sciences, statistics, health studies, public policy, and social services administration who will be or are currently involved in quantitative research.  Research questions about why an intervention works, for whom, under what conditions, and whether one individual’s treatment could affect other individuals’ outcomes are often key to the advancement of scientific knowledge yet pose major analytic challenges. This course introduces cutting-edge theoretical concepts and methodological approaches with regard to mediation of intervention effects, moderated intervention effects, and spillover effects in a variety of settings. Instructor:  Guanglei Hong

PHILOSOPHY

Medical Ethics: Who Decides and on What

This course addresses current issues in medical ethics such as the intersection of clinical ethics and health policy, living organ donors, assisted suicide, vaccinations (parental refusals for children and mandatory vaccinations for health care workers, and whether medical professionals have a collective duty to ensure that their profession provides non-discriminatory access to all medical services.  Instructors: Daniel Brudney,  John Lantos, and Lainie Ross

DEPARTMENTS OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY

SPORT (the Summer Program in Outcomes Research Training)

SPORT is sponsored by the Departments of Medicine and Surgery with additional funding from the Biological Sciences Division and support from the Center for Health and the Social Sciences (CHeSS), and headed by Director David Meltzer.  SPORT is an opportunity for faculty, fellows, and MD/PhD students at The University of Chicago to receive training in outcomes research methods. During the Summer Quarter, students participate in three courses and two workshop series that will enable them to acquire the skills needed to initiate an outcomes research project.

PRITZKER SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Community Health

Participants will receive training in asset-based community development, community organizing, service-learning, advocacy, policy narrative, community-based participatory research, and other topics related to community health.  Each student will begin to plan a scholarly project such as: asset maps, needs assessments, program development, implementation and/or evaluation. Students will have the opportunity to meet with community leaders, visit community organizations, and participate in group service-learning projects.  Instructors:  Deborah Burnet and Kohar Jones  

Global HIV Epidemiology and Community Outreach

This course is designed to provide students with a detailed understanding of the epidemiology of HIV disease from an international public health perspective and then how to communicate transmission information to the community on the South Side of Chicago. Particular emphasis will be placed on comparing the epidemic in the US and countries abroad with a focus on India and China. Specifically students will be introduced to the science behind current HIV risk factors, novel prevention strategies and the mechanisms of transmission. In the second half of the course, with the guidance of the HIV Intervention/Prevention Curriculum (HIP Corps), students will be trained on communication skills building and will learn how to conduct culturally sensitive and age appropriate educational workshops. They will then have the opportunity to enact outreach with middle and high school students. This course is a collaboration between the University of Chicago Section of Infectious Diseases and Global Health, the Office of Community Affairs and the CDC initiated HIV Intervention/Prevention Curriculum (HIP Corps).  Instructors: John Schneider, Sara Bares, Vagish Hemmige  

Global Public Health

This course is intended to provide an overview of key issues in global public health. It will be taught as a seminar where students actively participate in case-based discussions on topics and concepts drawn from the assigned readings. The emphasis will be on discussion and critical analysis, not didactic lectures.  The readings will include articles that describe particular global health interventions or initiatives. Throughout the seminar, the focus will be on real-world problems currently facing the global health community. Topics to be discussed include public health infrastructure, mathematical epidemiology, malaria, HIV/AIDS, communicable disease control, public health financing, chronic illnesses, reproductive health, epidemic management, poverty, nutrition, vaccine policy, and ethical issues in global health. Seminar participants will learn how to analyze these issues using mathematical disease modeling, conceptual mapping, cost-benefit analysis, disease life-cycles, and epidemiologic surveillance.  Instructor:  Brian Callender

Health and Human Rights

This course will attempt to define health and health care in the context of human rights theory and practice. Does a “right to health” include a “right to health care?” We will delineate health care financing in the United States and compare these systems with those of other nations. We will explore specific issues of health and medical practice as they interface in areas of global conflict: torture, landmines, and poverty.  Readings and discussions will explore social determinants of health: housing, educational institutions, employment, and the fraying of social safety nets. We will study vulnerable populations: foster children, refugees, and the mentally ill.  Lastly, does a right to health include a right to pharmaceuticals? What does the big business of drug research and marketing mean for the U.S. and the world?  Instructor:  Renslow Sherer

Quality Improvement

The course will focus on the practical skills necessary to assess and improve quality of care in healthcare settings. Seminal literature in the areas of quality improvement and patient safety will be reviewed. Quality improvement skills such as writing aim statements, process mapping, choosing measures, and using Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles will be taught and practiced. Students will have the opportunity to review quality data collected from both inpatient and outpatient settings at the University of Chicago Medical Center and design interventions that have the potential to improve care delivery. The course will combine didactics with group exercises and projects. Visiting clinical sites to interview relevant stakeholders will be a required component of the course. Student will have the opportunity to interact with quality leaders from across the medical center. Instructors:  Julie Oyler and Lisa Vinci  

Religious Traditions and Medical Ethics

Medicine is a moral practice, and suffering, illness, and dying are among the most deeply challenging of human experiences. It is not surprising that religious traditions inform the ways many patients and clinicians understand, navigate, cope with, and make decisions related to illness.  In this course, students will outline the moral dimensions of the practice of medicine and the great human questions that are at stake in medical decision-making. Each week, they will then learn from the texts of and a speaker from each of several particular religious traditions. The goal is to understand how those traditions inform the practice of medicine and medical decision-making, particularly in areas of ethical complexity and controversy. Instructor:  Farr Curlin

Social Context of Medicine

This course covers topics including developing a basic understanding of the types of organizations in which physicians practice, the effects of race and class on people’s health and on the delivery of medical care, Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurance, managed care, challenges facing hospitals, problems with cost quality, and access to care in the U.S.  Many sessions are given by lecturers who are nationally recognized experts in their field.  Instructor: Dr. Elmer Abbo