Duke's MPP program provides solid training in the analytic skills needed by those entering the field of public policy. The demanding MPP curriculum provides few degrees of freedom to pursue a graduate health policy certificate requiring 5 courses to complete. So why would any rational utility-maximizing MPP student even consider doing a certificate? There are several good reasons to consider.

Why Do a Health Policy Certificate?
First, having a substantive policy focus will provide significant value added, especially in health policy. There are many other degree programs turning out students trained to do health policy work, including masters in public health, masters of science in public health specializing in health policy and administration, masters in healthcare administration and even MBAs who specialize in health sector management. If you are seriously interested in health policy, organizations such as the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MEDPAC), the office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at Department of Health and Human Services (ASPE), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to name just a few examples, will generally favor job candidates who already have some background (and perhaps internship experience) in health policy over generalists regardless of their qualifications.

Second, health policy is an exciting area of public policy. Health constitutes the fastest-growing share of the federal budget and most state budgets, thereby making it a constant front-burner issue for policymakers, and one whose importance inevitably will grow over time as baby boomers become eligible for Medicare and as technology keeps pushing the frontiers of what medicine can do to improve health and save lives. To give you a better idea of just how big health care is: if CMS were a private business, its annual spending (several hundred billion dollars annually) would easily place it at the top of the Fortune 500 list. Nearly half of the $1.6 trillion spent annually on health care is through the public sector and policymakers are desperately in need of skilled advice about how to provide the most bang for the health care dollar. Health policy poses some of the most intellectually challenging and complex problems to solve:

~ What should we do about the 44 million uninsured whose numbers rise every year due to ever-increasing health costs?
~What should the role of policy be in genomics to ensure that we can attain the lifesaving benefits from gene technology while at the same time preserving patient privacy and confidentiality and avoiding a brave new world of human clones?
~Do we need special protections in managed care plans for vulnerable populations, including the poor, the elderly and the disabled?
~Should Medicare be expanded to include prescription drugs and if so, what is the most sensible way to do this?
~ What should the role of government be in addressing individual lifestyle-related issues such as smoking and obesity given that these result in hundreds of thousands of deaths and many tens of billion of dollars in spending every year?
~ How should HIV/AIDS be addressed in developing countries struggling to afford even basic needs such as food and shelter?
~ How can we ensure that people receive end-of-life care that supports death with dignity?

Third, the sheer enormity of the health care enterprise--$3 trillion in health care spending worldwide!-ensures nearly limitless career opportunities. Health policy analysts labor happily at all levels of government, domestically and internationally, but many more can be found in the private sector, including policy "think tanks" or consulting firms, advocacy groups, trade organizations or universities. Indeed, less than 10% of Duke's certificate graduates work directly for government. Instead, roughly one quarter end up at think tanks or consulting firms such as the Advisory Board, and roughly 10% apiece end up working for: a) advocacy organizations such Families USA; b) the health industry or trade groups; and c) universities.

How Can MPPs Complete the Health Policy Certificate?
To date, 9 MPPs have successfully graduated with the health policy certificate, so it most definitely can be done. Completing a certificate requires taking a total of 5 courses, including the capstone seminar, PUBPOL 255 Health Policy Analysis, which you should plan to take during spring of your graduating year. This seminar provides an opportunity to work in teams on a full-blown health policy analysis of the caliber produced by the CBO or GAO. Although in the past there were too few students each year to have a separate graduate section, we now have enough to guarantee this would be a graduate-only seminar, giving you an opportunity to work with other students in law, medicine, business, masters of arts in liberal studies and even some PhD candidates.

It is critical to understand that if you do your Masters Memo on a health policy topic, that can be counted as one of your electives. So that leaves 2 core courses and 1 elective course to be completed during the 3 semesters you have available after you've finished the MPP core requirements in your first semester at Duke.

But it gets even better! If you want to hit the ground running, a great elective course to consider is the Fuqua Health Sector Management (HSM) program's Health Care into the 21st Century. This week-long intensive course, designed as a "boot camp" for incoming MBA students wishing to pursue the HSM concentration, is offered in August, before the semester begins. To count this towards the Certificate, you would also have to complete a 30 page paper sometime during that first semester, but this is an excellent way of getting quickly and deeply immersed in understanding how the health system works, the key players in the policy process and the industry. It is taught by Dan Mendelson, a former associate director at OMB who later became senior VP at the highly respected Lewin Group, and who now runs his own health consulting practice. The combination of Professor Mendelson's own experience, the guest lecturers he brings in for this class, and the opportunity to learn how MBA students view the world makes this an extraordinary and very exciting course to consider. But if you do not find this appealing, the certificate program has more than 40 other electives from which to choose.

To complete your two core courses, there are ample offerings in both Fall and Spring semesters:

*Fuqua schedule compresses courses into ½ semester. This course is offered during Term 4, i.e., the second half of spring semester.
**This course is offering during Term 3, i.e., first half of spring semester. Thus, both MGRECON 408 and HLTHMGMT 326 can be taken in the same semester, but keep in mind that each is a full course, so avoid overloading.

Need More Details?

The Health Policy Certificate Web page contains a complete list of all course offerings, course descriptions and links to on-line courses or syllabi where available:
http://www.hpolicy.duke.edu/hpcp/

Questions? Concerns? Need Advice?

Christopher J. Conover, Ph.D.
Director, Health Policy Certificate Program
125 Old Chemistry Bldg.
684-8026
conoverc@hpolicy.duke.edu