All students in the HDGH must complete a thesis project in order to fulfill the requirements of the MPH degree. This project is a rigorous academic requirement; as the culmination of the MPH experience, it is an independent, theory-based inquiry in which the student applies knowledge and skills acquired during the MPH program to the scholarly study of a public health problem. In HDGH, the thesis project may take the form of either a Special Studies Project (e.g. a deliverable for an organization) or a Research Project (e.g. systematic review, analysis of primary or secondary data) using quantitative, qualitative or other methodologies and presented in a traditional style or manuscript style.

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Required for all MPH students. Introduces students to the US health care system, both the public and private sector. Examines the structure of the health system, current topics in health care reform, the policy process, and advocacy for public health.

Pre-Requisites: PRS 500D as prerequisite or special permission required to enroll. This course provides an introduction/overview to the various components of the U.S. healthcare system. It examines the multiple determinants of health (focusing on the role that medical care plays), private and public financing mechanisms for medical care, various healthcare providers, and the effects of both market competition and government regulation. One objective of the course is for students to gain institutional knowledge of the U.S. healthcare system that is relevant to both healthcare managers and policy analysts. A second objective of the course is for students to learn to critically examine the tradeoffs associated with various health policies. These tradeoffs fundamentally result from a lack of resources to fund all desired medical care. As such, we will examine how collective interests shape the design of health policies.

Required for HPM students. Examines the formulation and implementation of health policy in the US health care system. Emphasizes the application of analytical contributions from health economics, health services research, and other policy-related disciplines to current issues in health care delivery, organization, and financing.

Required for HPM students. Introduces the theory and principles of management. Topic areas include motivation, leadership, organizational change, human resources administration, organizational theory, strategic planning, and management control systems. Teaches practical applications of management theory through case studies and group discussions.

Introduces the basic accounting concepts, analytical techniques, decision-making tools, and vocabulary needed for effective management of health care organizations. The first part of the course is devoted to the fundamentals of financial accounting, including preparing and interpreting key financial statements. The second part covers the generation, use, and interpretation of accounting information for making managerial decisions

Prerequisite: HPM 510. Introduces the fundamental theories and relationships guiding financial decision making as they apply to the management of health care organizations. Focuses on the key managerial issues related to maintaining and expanding a health care organization's assets. Selected topics in this course include short-term assets management, discounting cash flow analysis, capital acquisition decisions, and capital budgeting decisions.

Prerequisites: HPM 501 or GH 501, HPM 500 for non HPM students, or permission of instructor. This course introduces students to foundational concepts in development economics and relates them to health policy issues around the world. We will study the forces that contribute to economic development, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, and explore the concept and measurement of poverty in these settings. We will also focus on the microeconomic fundamentals of economic development: how individuals, households, communities, and policymakers make decisions that enable and constrain their capabilities. We will focus on topic areas such as fertility, nutrition, health, education, labor markets, savings and credit, and intra-household decision-making. Empirical evidence and theory from low- and middle-income countries will be used, paying special attention to methods, context, and contributions to policy and practice.

Introduces basic supply and demand concepts applied to health care markets, using microeconomic theory. Topics of discussion include what does or does not make health care distinctive as an economic good, the market for health care in theory and practice, and economic proposals to overcome existing market failure.

Prerequisites: HPM 500 or HPM 501, and HPM 521. Examines the theory, methods, and applications of economic evaluations (cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit, cost-utility) of health care programs, using examples from both developing and developed countries. Applications range from economic evaluations of medical procedures to economic evaluations of intervention programs in developing countries.