- Core classes
- Economics Track
- Organizations Track
- Policy/Politics Track
- Population Health
- Research Methods
- Seminars
- Research Methods Paper
- Specialty Field Exam
- Qualifying Exam
- Dissertation
- Advancement to Candidacy
Population Health
The Health Services and Policy Analysis (HSPA) PhD program at UC-Berkeley trains students to conduct research on scientific questions related to both health services and health outcomes. HSPA has traditionally trained students who have entered the field known as “health services research,” which in the past was defined narrowly as relating to medical services, but increasingly has expanded to focus on both medical outcomes research as well as non-medical determinants of health. A parallel converging trend has occurred in the field of epidemiology, with the subfield of “social epidemiology” increasingly focusing on policy analysis. Yet to date few students are trained to understand the theories, methods, and historical bodies of knowledge of both epidemiology and the social-science based HSPA disciplines. UC-Berkeley’s new emphasis in “Population Health” doctoral-level training aims to fill this gap in training programs by offering an interdisciplinary curriculum at the intersection of HSPA and epidemiology.
Students who wish to earn a PhD in HSPA with a specialty field in Population Health will take a core breadth curriculum that is similar to that of other HSPA students, but in lieu of specializing in a traditional social science specialty field such as economics, political science, or organizational sociology, Population Health students will take specialty field courses in epidemiology and demography.
Core Courses
2 Economics courses -- prerequisite: PH 226A. Students should have the equivalent of a Master’s level health economics course such as PH 226A.
-
ECON 101A Economic Theory - micro OR
- PP 210A and B The Economics of Public Policy Analysis
AND
- DEMOG C236 Aging: Economic and Demographic Aspects OR
- DEMOG C275 Economic Demography
2 Political Science courses -- prerequisite: PH 220. Students should have the equivalent of a Master’s level health policy course such as PH 220.
- PH 230 Advanced Health Politics
- PH293.17 Science, Politics & Policy in Health Policy Research
- or other approved health politics/policy core course
- PH 224C Advanced Health Organizations
- SOC 201 Sociological Theory
- or other approved substitute
2 Sociology courses:
Specialty Field Courses*
- PH 226C Public Health and the Economy
- PH 250C Epidemiologic Theory
- PH 255A Social Epidemiology
- PH 298.53 Methods in Social Epidemiology
- DEMOG 126: Social Consequences of Population Dynamics
* Students will be responsible for the content of all five of these courses for their specialty field exam.
Methods Requirement
1 research design course:
- PH 250B Epidemiologic Methods II (or approved substitute)
AND
2 statistics courses from approved list. Strongly recommended are:
- ARE 212 Econometrics: Multiple Equation Estimation
- ARE 213 Applied Econometrics