The Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science will bring 50 students from a wide range of disciplines to campus this July for a master's program designed to address national health care issues, according to Al Mulley Jr., the Center's director.
The program will be the inaugural effort of the Center, which was founded last May with a $35 million anonymous donation and aims to use the College's resources to improve health care quality around the world.
The students will participate in an 18-month master's program by taking online and on-campus courses, according to Mulley. The masters program has already received its first round of applications, but has not yet sent out acceptances, Mulley said. The students will visit campus four times for a total of six weeks, according to Mulley. During the first session, students will arrive in Hanover July 5 and return home July 20. When not on campus, the students will use web-based learning tools to work between 15 and 20 hours a week with faculty members.
Mulley said he expects that the master's program will draw students from a wide range of fields including sociology, business, economics, law, public policy, systems engineering and management science, in addition to medicine.
"We want to bring in the best thinkers from across different disciplines," Mulley said. "The problems of health care are too complex for just one discipline."
Dartmouth Medical School, Tuck School of Business and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice faculty will teach the master's courses and have already begun to develop the program, according to Mulley. Every Wednesday, TDI and Tuck faculty will alternately lead seminars to integrate the two programs, Mulley said.
The Center will eventually expand beyond the master's program, and faculty from various departments are already discussing ideas for courses and research opportunities for undergraduate students, he said.
The Center will also offer executive education programs, seminars and meetings designed to benefit leaders in the health care industry, according to DMS Dean Wiley Souba.
Souba said the program also might collaborate with health insurance companies to bring together executives for four-day seminars focused on health care delivery, which will also help DMS train more knowledgeable doctors.
"Medical students, much more than ever before, need to understand the hydraulics of the delivery system," Souba said. "They need to understand payment structures, quality and safety and what evidenced-based medicine is."
Since the May announcement of the Center's creation, Cornell University and Stanford University have launched similar programs, according to Mulley. The growing interest in the field of health care delivery means the College is poised to become a leader in an increasingly important discipline, Mulley said.
"We have the opportunity to make Dartmouth not only a national, but an international resource to take on the health care challenge," he said.
While the Center itself will not appoint faculty, it will provide resources to allow other departments to hire new faculty and visiting professors in relevant areas, Mulley said.
College President Jim Yong Kim and TDI Director James Weinstein have delivered presentations in cities across the country to promote the Center, according to Mulley.
In addition, the Center has reached out to health care and professional organizations to raise awareness of the new program, Mulley said.
The Center is currently housed in seven offices located at 37 Dewey Field Road, and its offices will expand to accommodate 40 people by this summer, Mulley said. The Center may receive a new building in the future, according to Mulley.
