Welcome to Health Policy

The Department's mission is to inform health policy and improve health and health care through research, education, and service. 

The Department offers the M.P.H. degree, including tracks in Health Policy, Global Health and Epidemiology, and a Ph.D. program, which offers full funding to students, and the opportunity to collaborate and work across disciplines at Vanderbilt.

Health Policy News

Featured Resources

Relative Drive Times to Tennessee Hospitals and ICU Bed Availability, January 2022

A map showing available ICU beds in Tennessee relative to July 2021

A map showing relative drive time to available ICU beds relative to July 2021.

Omicron variant sending more to hospital in Tennessee

chart showing covid hospitalizations in tennessee increasing after christmas holiday due to omicron variant

a chart showing covid hospitalizations in tennessee by region

County-level burden of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the general population during 2020

In a new paper published in the January 2022 edition of The Lancet Regional - Americas, Kevin Griffith, PhD, assistant professor of Health Policy, examined the increase in deaths among U.S. veterans in 2020 compared to previous years. Read the paper here. 

 

A map showing per capita covid cases in the US

 

 

Estimated Savings under Medicare Part D Redesign

In the Nov. 10 issues of the New England Journal of Medicine, Stacie Dusetzina, PhD, associate professor of Health Policy, estimated savings on prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries under 4 proposals circulating in Congress. Estimates of annual spending are based on average per-claim point-of-sale prices for the 15 drugs accounting for the highest expenditures in Medicare Part D in 2019, assuming 12 fills per drug per year. See the Supplementary Appendix for drug- and legislation-specific estimates and assumptions. Read the analysis here. 

a powerpoint slide showing the savings for certain prescription drugs under reform plans proposed in congress