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Earn a Master’s Degree or Graduate Certificate in Health Management & Policy

Courses in these blended programs feature a combination of face-to-face and online classes, maximizing the students’ convenience, while still allowing them the opportunity to interact with their faculty and fellow students in person.

 

The Benefits of Blended Education:

• Online sessions cut your face-to-face time in half - Spend less time commuting to class!
   
• Face-to-face class sessions are offered at convenient locations in Andover, Winchester and at UMass Lowell
   
• Meet with your faculty face-to-face and online
   
• Only 12 courses are required for the Master’s Degree Program;
  Only 4 courses for the Certificate Programs

In the News... "UMass Lowell Launches “Best of Both Worlds” Initiative Combining Face-to-Face and Online Sessions to Fit the Busy Schedules of Healthcare Professionals" (read more)

 

This program is funded in part by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
 

Yankee Alliance Members
Employees of Yankee Alliance member institutions should register for the courses in this program through Yankee Alliance in order to receive the member benefits associated with this program. Proof of Yankee Alliance member institution affiliation will be required for those registering through Yankee Alliance. Please see Yankee Alliance's website for further details.

 

 

The Blended Master’s Degree Program in
Health Management & Policy
The UMass Lowell Graduate Master’s Degree Program in Health Management and Policy is designed to produce health care and policy professionals with the knowledge and expertise essential to the delivery of high-quality, cost-effective health services, as well as the design, analysis and evaluation of public health and private sector health policies. UMass Lowell offers three concentrations for students to customize the program around their particular areas of interest.

 

Concentrations include:

 

Graduate Certificate Programs
In addition to the Master’s Degree program, UMass Lowell offers professional, graduate-level certificate programs in Health Management, Informatics and Policy. These four-course certificate programs are designed to help professionals acquire advanced knowledge and skills while pursuing advanced studies beyond their Bachelor’s Degree. It provides individuals with the opportunity to explore graduate education without committing to the full master’s degree program of study. Moreover, the courses completed towards these graduate certificate programs can also be applied towards the Master’s Degree in Health Management and Policy, if the certificate candidate decides to continue on with his/her studies.

 

How to Apply

For admission into the Master’s Degree program, you can apply online.

For admission into a Graduate Certificate Program, complete the application form at: http://www.uml.edu/grad/Programs_of_Study/Certificate_Application.pdf

 

 

Course Descriptions

 

32.506 Quantitative Methods in Health Management
Application of statistical techniques to management of health care information, including descriptive data and statistical inference. SPSS, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, used for data analysis. Course is taught in a hybrid format (part online). Pre-requisite: An elementary statistics course.

32.527 Healthcare Planning and Marketing
The history, principles and methodologies of health services planning and marketing are examined. Relevant primary and secondary sources of data and information are identified. The functions of the planner, management, providers and governing board are explored.

32.555 Computers: Health Information Management
This course is designed to give graduate students in the Health Professions a better understanding of technology’s impact on the health care environment. Special emphasis is placed on information management, utilizing the personal computer as an information management tool, and technologies impact on health care.

32.502 Organizational Behavior in Healthcare
The course provides an overview of the organization and behavior of individuals in health care institutions. We analyze the role of managers, clinicians and others in these systems. The course applies organizational, behavioral and social science theory to health care organizations. Comparisons between health care and non-health care organizations are made to emphasize the unique aspects of health care. Emphasis is on the use of course material by students to analyze organizational culture and manage change in health care organizations.

32.604 Health Data Analysis
By completing this course, students will be able to apply biostatistical methods to the analysis and interpretation of health data. Topics include: distributions, measurement, statistical inference, hypothesis testing, t-tests, ANOVA, correlation and regression, and chi-square. Students will work with health data from the UMass Lowell Student Health Survey data base using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). A prerequisite for this course is an elementary statistics course.

32.607 Health Care Information Systems
Provides health care professionals with a practical understanding of health care information systems sufficient to work effectively with and support information systems design, development and implementation within a variety of health care settings. The course includes analysis and discussion of actual case examples.

32.511 Health Care Finance
Provides students with a practical understanding of basic health care financial issues, financial reporting and analysis, and provider payment structures. The course enables students to read, analyze and use health care financial information in today’s health care environment.

32.612 Operations Analysis for Quality Improvement
This course presents an interdisciplinary approach to quality management in health care, including disciplines such as operations management, organizational behavior, and health services research. We focus on improving performance and patient safety in a variety of health-related organizations, including hospitals, public health departments and pharmaceutical companies.

32.514 Health Care Management
This course provides a framework for addressing management problems in health care organizations. It provides students with an overview of the manner in which health care institutions are organized and governed, the role of management, physicians, nurses and other clinical and support staff in these organizations, and the management systems designed for their efficient and effective operation.

32.615 Health Economics
In this course, students will learn how to apply microeconomic tools to the study of health and medical care issues. They will examine the special features of medical care as a commodity, the demand for health and medical care services, the economic explanations for the behavior of medical care providers (i.e., physicians and hospitals), the functioning of insurance markets, and technology diffusion. Discussions will touch on current policy topics such as the prospective payment system, relative value scales, insurance reform, rationing, and price regulation. Students will also be examining the role of and economic justification for government involvement in the medical care system. Finally, students will use the tools learned to review and analyze various proposals for health care reform.

32.616 Law and Ethics in Healthcare
This course presents an overview of legal and ethical issues facing managers in health care. It provides students with a basic foundation of health law and ethics and reviews a wide variety of health care legal and ethical situations. The goals are to provide students with practical knowledge of health law and ethics and their application to the real world of health care managers. Students will be exposed to many management ideas, theories and applications of law and ethics in health care. By the end of the course, students should have working knowledge of pertinent law and ethical procedures and how to apply them in the health care arena. Prerequisite: A course in Health Care Management or Health Policy

32.625 Health Policy
Provides students with a basic framework for health policy analysis and examines major strands of U.S. health policy. Detailed consideration and discussion are given to the relationship of national policy to the planning, implementation, and funding of health care services, with particular emphasis on low-income and minority populations. This course will cover topics such as the legal and ethical aspects of health care professionals, government-funded health care through Medicaid and Medicare, and the process of health policymaking at the city, county, state, and federal levels.

32.626 Leadership and Management
The course provides an integrative view of strategic and operational leadership and the management of change in health care organizations. The course is designed to be a capstone experience in the Health Management and Policy curriculum. Trends in the leadership and the management of change are resented and discussed. The need to integrate strategic, middle and operational processes to improve the probability of the success and survival of health care organizations while improving the health of patients and communities is advanced.

32.627 Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health
The course explores the relationship between social and economic justice and public health. Focusing primarily on the U.S., the forces that either establish and exacerbate or prevent socioeconomic inequities will be analyzed to understand the intricate links between social, behavioral, physical, and biological determinants of health. Several theoretical orientations will be reviewed in order to better understand how each frames research and public health strategies that have been used to address health inequalities. Students will be able to competently articulate the relationships between social and health inequalities. They will be able to explain the strengths and limitations of different theoretical orientations to these issues and frame the policy needs to positively reduce health disparities.

32.631 Health Informatics
The course introduces how health science (theory and practice), computer science (hardware) and information science (software) are integrated in the management of health care data into information and knowledge. Overviews of current and future technologies for the management of health care information are covered.

32.632 Health Information Systems Planning
A study of existing health care system requirements and the design and implementation of modifications or new systems. Actual or hypothetical health care system related projects will be used to support the theoretical framework

32.633 Health Care Database Design
This course presents a practical understanding of the design of Relational Databases with emphasis on health care applications. MS Access will be used to enhance understanding of the design concepts.

 

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