PhD in Health Services & Policy
Doctoral Student Research
The doctoral program is linked to the Center for Health Policy and Research which provides students with invaluable research experience and weekly research seminars to complement their coursework.
Center for Health Policy and Research
The doctoral program emphasizes research training in an apprentice-style model located in a comprehensive research laboratory. That laboratory is the Center for Health Policy and Research (CHPR), where doctoral students and HMP faculty research projects are housed. This large research portfolio provides excellent training opportunities for doctoral students.
The CHPR sponsors educational activities in the form of weekly seminars by University of Iowa researchers plus nationally-acclaimed visiting scholars.
The CHPR collaborates with health provider associations, policy and planning groups, insurance organizations, health delivery institutions, and other members of the health services research community. Our faculty are involved in a wide range of health services and policy research topics. Grants and contracts in the center use a variety of research methodologies.
Recent Doctoral Student Research Projects
- Explaining Racial Disparities in Infant Health in Brazil
- Do the Effects of Prenatal Care on Infant Health Vary by Birth Defects: The Case of Orofacial Clefts
- The Impact of Residential Segregation on Health of African-American Infants
- The Aftermath of Ischemic Stroke in Older Medicare Beneficiaries
- Incorporating quality measures in the cost function for hospitals
- Efficacy and cost effectiveness of health screening services
- The epidemiology of complications in rural and urban hospitals
- Race and gender differences in nursing home placement
- Comparison of state policies and regulations in end-of-life care
- Patient safety trends in Critical Access Hospitals
- Improving hand-off communication among hospital physicians
- Effects of veteran status on health status, utilization and morbidity