HRP-PHD - Health Policy (PhD)

University requirements for the Ph.D. are described in the "Graduate Degrees" section of this bulletin.

Health Policy investigates how social factors, financing systems, organizational structures and processes, health technologies, and personal behaviors affect the accessibility, quality and cost of health care and ultimately our health and well-being.  Stanford Health Policy offers a PhD program which promises to educate students who will be scholarly leaders in the field of health policy, and will be highly knowledgeable about the theoretical and empirical approaches that can be applied in the development of improvements in health policy and the health care system. The curriculum offers courses across a wide range of health policy areas including health economics, health insurance and government program operation, health financing, international health policy and economic development, cost-effectiveness analysis and the evaluation of new technologies, health law and ethics, health systems operations, relevant statistical and methodological approaches, and health policy issues related to public health concerns like obesity and chronic disease.

The minimum number of units required for a Ph.D. degree at Stanford (satisfied both through coursework and research units) is 135.  Students are required to complete their course work with minimum grades of 'B-' and an overall/average GPA of a B (3.0).

In addition to taking a set of core courses, students are expected to complete course work in one of three tracks:

• Health Economics: including the economic behavior of individuals, providers, insurers, and governments and how their actions affect health and medical care.

• Decision Sciences: with quantitative techniques to assess the effectiveness and value of medical treatments and for decision making about medical care at the individual and/or collective level.

• Evaluative Methods: encompassing advanced statistical, computational, and other quantitative methodologies appropriate for application in areas of interest to students such as organizational behavior, law, ethics, and data science. 

Students must also develop, write and present a Ph.D. dissertation that is the result of independent investigation and that constitutes a contribution to knowledge in health services and health policy research.

For additional program information, including (but not limited to) program and course requirements, faculty lists, admissions information, requirements and deadlines see the program's website.  Please address inquiries to the Health Policy Admissions Team at hrpadmissions@stanford.edu.

Applications to the program must be submitted through the Stanford Graduate Admissions website by clicking on "Apply Now."

Transfer credit is not accepted for the PhD program.

Stanford Health Policy (SHP) is committed to providing academic advising in support of graduate student scholarly and professional development. When most effective, this advising relationship entails collaborative and sustained engagement by both the advisor and the advisee. As a best practice, advising expectations should be periodically discussed and reviewed to ensure mutual understanding. Both the advisor and the advisee are expected to maintain professionalism and integrity.

Faculty advisors guide students in key areas such as selecting courses, designing and conducting research, developing teaching pedagogy, navigating policies and degree requirements, and exploring academic opportunities and professional pathways.

Graduate students are active contributors to the advising relationship, proactively seeking academic and professional guidance and taking responsibility for informing themselves of policies and degree requirements for their graduate program.

SHP programs adhere to the advising guidelines and responsibilities listed by the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education and in the Graduate Academic Policies and Procedures manual.  

For a statement of University policy on graduate advising, see the Graduate Advising section of this bulletin.

Stanford Health Policy (SHP) conducts rigorous research that lays the foundation for better domestic and international health policy and health care. Drawing upon our multidisciplinary research, the PhD in Health Policy trains students to be scholarly leaders in the field, as well as to become highly knowledgeable about approaches that can be applied in the development of improvements in health policy and the health care system.