What is the health policy certificate?
A certificate, but not a major, is available to students who are pursuing either an undergraduate or graduate degree at Duke University, including students enrolled through Continuing Studies.*
The program speaks to the needs of students preparing for careers in health care policy, management and the associated professions as the American health care industry enters into a period of rapid and profound change. The certificate may be viewed as an interdisciplinary undergraduate major or graduate program to denote students who have obtained expertise in the health policy area.
Courses in the health policy certificate program address three interrelated goals:
- to investigate the machinery of contemporary health policy-making and to understand the broad political dynamics which have conditioned American health policy, past and present;
- to familiarize students with the institutional and economic complexity of the American health care system through the study of the interaction between the key players in health care financing and organization -- employers, private insurance carriers, government regulators, health care providers and consumers; and,
- to explore the cultural and ideological underpinnings of modern conceptions of health and the recurrent ethical dilemmas facing health care providers, patients and policy makers.
The program draws upon established research programs relating to health services centered in economics, political science, public policy and sociology but recognizes the inspired contributions to health care debates originating the disciplines of anthropology, history, law, medical arts, philosophy, psychology and religion.
*Continuing Studies studentsmust enroll at Duke through the Office of Continuing Studies (684-6259). Such students may elect to receive the Graduate Certificate. |
