Pharmaceutical Health Services Research

Pharmaceutical Health Services Research (PHSR) is a multidisciplinary field that studies how social factors, financing systems, organizational structures and processes, health technologies, and personal behaviors affect access to medications, the quality and cost of pharmaceutical interventions, and ultimately, their effect on our health and well-being (definition adapted from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2014).  

In the PHSR academic track within the POP graduate program, our goal is to arm students and trainees with the tools necessary to critically appraise drug policy and rigorously evaluate trends in the utilization of medications prescribed and dispensed within the context of health services. The PHSR curriculum is designed to draw on analytical skills conferred within foundational courses from epidemiology, biostatistics, and bioinformatics and then applying these methodological skills toward practical research, public health, and regulatory applications. Our research informs policymakers, consumers, and clinicians regarding effectiveness of policies that shape medication access, use, and reimbursement as well as medication-centered interventions that improve quality of care. Students training in this track have the opportunity to engage in timely research with faculty who specialize in diverse clinical and methodological focus areas, including, but not limited to; maternal and child health, geriatrics, substance use disorders, and legal epidemiology, using automated database analyses and mixed methods approaches.