Global Health in Health Management & Policy (GHMP)

A great experience for those interested in health services and health policy in a global context.

  • Global health is exciting, growing, diverse, and competitive. The HMP Global Health Program prepares a small number of students to work in global health policy and management, either in the United States or abroad. The HMP global health degree is pursued by a small set of students within the larger MHSA and MPH programs, chosen at admission, who are training to apply their health management and policy skills in a range of international contexts. Students will combine the general skills of the HMP MPH/MHSA with coursework and internships that give them a broad understanding of health policy and management issues around the world and practical experience of health policy and management in a specific healthcare system, non-governmental organization, or international organization.
  • Many HMP faculty members have active research agendas regarding health systems and health policy in other nations, including both developing and developed countries. These professors bring their knowledge and experience into the classroom, and hire students as research assistants on their project.
  • The HMP core curriculum, while primarily focuses on the U.S., provides students with a broad set of competencies and skills that are applicable to multiple countries and contexts. Students leave the program with a deep knowledge of core issues in health systems and public health, and a broad set of analytical, communication, and leadership skills that are transferable and applicable across countries.
  • The curriculum includes several courses that focus on health systems and services issues in other countries. In many core courses, students also examine the U.S. health system in a comparative context, relative to other nations.
  • Each year, several HMP students go abroad to do their summer internships. Recent examples include NGOs in India, Rwanda, and Kenya; the United Kingdom National Health Service Fife in Scotland; the Strategic Health Authority in England; the Council of Women World Leaders in Finland; and the World Health Organization in Geneva.

Information about the GHMP subplan

Global health management and policy encompasses three areas of activity: development and health, focused on health challenges in poorer countries; comparative health, focused on the differences and similarities in how systems operate; and global health governance, focused on shared global concerns such as communicable diseases. As a field it is growing in interest and profile, but the labor market in development and health is notoriously challenging. By contrast, there is growth and no clear market leader in international health management and policy, where HMP alumni already have a long track record. GHMP equips students for both the competitive health and development world and also for the growing global health management and policy world, especially the health services sector.  

The HMP Global Health Management and Policy Subplan is a limited enrollment program that starts with the existing HMP degrees, which provide the analytical and management background that employers in global health often appreciate most about United States degree holders. Finance, economics, organizational behavior, quality measurement, health informatics and decision sciences are all core areas of HMP teaching that are valued in international contexts. HMP alumni hold positions, especially in policy and provider management, on every populated continent and provide a base of experience and alumni contacts. 

GHMP adds two components preparing students for global health work. One will be coursework that equips students with awareness of the topics, vocabulary, and analytical approaches used in discussing global health issues; the other will be an internship requirement, backstopped financially by the department, that ensures students graduate with in-country experience. It will be compatible with the SPH Global Health certificate. 

GHMP is designed to train effective managers and policymakers who can operate in global, comparative, and international health contexts by adding specific education and internship experience to the broad HMP education in health management and policy. Students who graduate as GHMP will have received the broad management and policy education of HMP but with additional coursework covering the language of global health, the problems and debates in different health systems, and the forms that different management and policy challenges take. The objective, in short, is to train students who will be able to thrive as managers or policymakers in the international health and development sector or in the variety of management and policy jobs that are increasingly globalized. 

The coursework proposed for the Subplan will involve three existing HMP classes, taught annually or at least once every two years regardless of staff changes (e.g. sabbaticals, retirements), in addition to the existing MPH or MHSA coursework: 

  • HMP 624, focused on health systems and policies in lower-income countries
  • HMP 677, focused on health systems and policies in middle income countries
  • HMP 625, focused on health systems and policies in rich countries

A student can substitute a course of three or more credits for one of the three required courses (HMP 624, 625, or 677). A substitution can take place if it is demonstrated to the committee that the student will graduate with equivalent knowledge and the course taken in place of the required course will improve the student's global health competency. 

In addition to the special global health coursework, completion of the Subplan requires an internship with global health content. In most cases, this will mean an internship outside the United States. For students who enter the program with extensive experience in global health outside the United States, internships working on global policy or management issues in the US will be acceptable. HMP would expect GHMP Subplan students to seek paid internships or outside funding but will expect financially assist any who cannot raise sufficient funds. 

At least once per semester, there will be a workshop with faculty for GHMP students. HMP will encourage students to organize events in addition to the workshop that reflect their interests. 

GHMP competencies are consistent with and additional to the existing HMP competencies. The coursework and internship will ensure that students graduate having attained the following objectives in addition to the various competencies developed in the HMP degree programs:

  • Ability to discuss at an expert level the issues, vocabulary, and debates in global health management and policy as seen in countries with different kinds of health systems and income levels HMP 624, 625, 677;
  • Skills at finding information about and understanding health systems and statistics of other countries through use of international data, system analysis, and literature review HMP 624, 625, 677;
  • Engage in global health policy and/or management work, thereby developing core GHMP skills in appropriate context. Internship.

GHMP is a limited program with students normally admitted at the same time as their admission to the degree program. Students will identify themselves on their applications as requesting admission to GHMP. Admissions are capped to reflect our demonstrated capacity to secure valuable internships and give an appropriate level of support. Students already enrolled in HMP can apply and be considered for admission at the discretion of the HMP Global Health committee.