During this time of rapid evolution and uncertain future in the US healthcare system, it is critical that the US prepare a new generation of thought leaders and policy makers with the interdisciplinary training, flexible critical thinking skills and real-world grounding to provide the necessary leadership to make sound decisions for our future. The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) and University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), widely regarded as two of the top public universities in the world, both feature long-standing traditions of high quality health systems research and training. UC Berkeley and UCSF jointly propose a five- year T32 training program for four predoctoral and two postdoctoral trainees in health services research (HSR).The overall objective will be to harness the historical collaboration, complementary skills and training capacity of the two institutions in a formal and intentional way to provide an outstanding training experience. The partnership combines UC Berkeley?s expertise in economics, organizations, management, and population health sciences, as well as its experience managing a long-standing HSR T32 predoctoral training program, with UCSF?s experience as a premiere health sciences research and patient care delivery institution, with expertise in graduate and post-graduate training. This enhanced training program will emphasize the application of interdisciplinary advances in social and behavioral sciences such as behavioral economics, implementation science, and social determinants of health, to real world challenges of clinicians, healthcare delivery systems, and health policy makers. Predoctoral trainees are required to have previously completed coursework in epidemiology, economics, and statistics, and all complete a year-long intensive core course in HSR and health policy, which emphasizes research methods and the application of social and behavioral science theories central to HSR. The four predoctoral traineeships are selected on an annual basis and each can serve no more than two years. The postdoctoral program builds upon UCSF and UC Berkeley?s decades of collaborative experience in administering postdoctoral programs in health policy and clinical research. Postdoctoral fellowships extend for two years and focus on providing intensive experiential HSR training to doctorally-trained social and behavioral scientists, as well as doctoral-level health professionals with the equivalent of an MPH degree. Throughout their training, all HSR T32 trainees attend biweekly HSR colloquia integrated between UCSF and UC Berkeley to expose them to cutting edge work in progress by nationally and internationally recognized health services researchers.
Training a new generation of scientific leaders in health services research (HSR) is crucial for continuing to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare in our nation. The UC Berkeley- UCSF HSR T32 uses an interdisciplinary social and behavioral science approach to HSR training at both pre- and post-doctoral levels, with specialty fields in health economics, organizations and management and population health sciences. The faculty group?s application of interdisciplinary advances--such as behavioral economics, implementation science, and social determinants of health--to issues of direct relevance to health policy makers, combined with close mentorship, equips trainees for careers conducting rigorous, partnered research to generate evidence for improving access to care, quality, patient outcomes, and population health.
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