Integrating Health Policy Concepts Into Graduate Education in Statistics and Biostatistics

• Activity Number: 198
• Type: Roundtables
• Date/Time: Monday, August 5, 2013 : 12:30 PM to 1:50 PM
• Sponsor: Health Policy Statistics Section
• Author(s): Thomas R. Belin*+
• Companies: UCLA Department of Biostatistics
• Keywords: decision analysis ; Affordable Care Act ; education ; law ; expert witness ; census

Abstract

Viewing health policy as an extraordinarily complicated challenge in decision analysis, and viewing statistical reasoning as a crucial ingredient in attaining the best possible policy outcomes, how can we best prepare graduate students in statistics and biostatistics to make contributions to health policy? This roundtable discussion will draw on experiences ranging from the presenter's own graduate training, which included concentrated coursework in public policy, to professional activity in a variety of policy-relevant areas, as well as experience as an educator training graduate students in biostatistics. Given time constraints and curriculum imperatives in graduate courses, the presentation will build on the idea that it is important to try to accomplish multiple objectives in the classroom, such as by enriching exposure to technical concepts with examples that illustrate the mapping of statistical ideas to societal settings, including the way statistical concepts are framed in policy debates, expert-witness settings, and the like. It is hoped that roundtable participants will share anecdotes from their professional experience as well.