Optional Enrichment Elective

The Realities of the U.S. Health Care System

Spring 2005- Syllabus

Welcome to this elective- the result of a collaborative effort between faculty and students to address a very important topic that will affect us as physicians. The health care system is an entity that we often hear about, but very rarely have the opportunity to learn about. This elective couples lectures with clinical correlations and allows students to ask the questions that we all have about how the system works. We will address access to health care, rising costs, current events, policy, and advocacy among other things. Below you will find a list of the planned lectures and a description of the requirements if you would like this elective to be mentioned on your dean’s letter. We are very excited to be able to offer this elective and look forward to working with all of you so that we might all better understand the system and our role in its evolution.

the aim of this elective is to further students' understanding of the U.S. health care system. The elective provides students with a basic understanding of how the health care system works and integrates health policy issues to promote physician advocacy. Lectures are designed to expose students to the current health care system and policy issues, and provides a forum for critcial analyses of these issues. The lecture series utilizes the expertise of a number of lectures from different areas throughout the health care system. In addition, guest speakers provide "clinicial correlations" on topics related to the day's lecture.

In order to be granted credit for having participated in this elective, you will need to meet two requirements: 1) attend at least six of the seven planned lectures, and 2) complete a final project. The guidelines for the project are quite broad so that students can tailor the elective to their own interests. Some suggestions for projects are to interview a physician on a health care issue of interest, write a brief paper discussing a researched topic, or write a bill that could be brought before Congress. On the last day the elective meets, students will swap projects with each other for peer review and discussion. Ultimately, the projects will be handed in to the faculty, so credit can be awarded.

Two hours will be allotted for each of the seven classes; the majority of the classes are scheduled for Thursday evenings from 6:00-8:00pm, the last sessions’ date remains to be announced. The format will consist of an hour lecture followed by discussion. When appropriate, clinical correlations will be included following the discussion to show the application for the topic discussed in the lecture.

Download the  Summer 2005 Reading List 

Faculty 

Suzanne Cashman, SCD, Email: Suzanne.Cashman@umassmed.edu 

Jay Himmelstein, MD, MPH, Email: Jay.Himmelstein@umassmed.edu 

Student Organizers 

Stephanie Carter, Email: Stephanie.Carter@umassmed.edu 

Joel Elzweig, Email: Joel.Elzweig@umassmed.edu 

Talia Pindyck, Email: Talia.Pindyck@umassmed.edu 

If you have any questions about the course, please feel free to contact us. Thank you very much for your participation and we look forward to the semester. We will keep you posted about the schedule.

Click here to view the Lecture Topics, Speakers and Discussant and Dates.