ImproveHealthCare.org (IHC) is a student-led initiative sponsored by Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy. Department head, Dr. Barbara McNeil is the project advisor for the student group and has been overseeing the program since its inception in the mid 90’s. The organization’s objective is to create an interactive environment that provides medical students with both basic and cutting-edge information about health care policy and its effects on the practice of medicine. The group offers monthly seminars for Medical Students called the Tosteson Lecture series and hosts a yearly conference attended by other IHC chapters across the country. In addition, student directors from the 2011 school year recently published the Perspective article entitled, “The State of Health Policy Education in U.S. Medical Schools” in the New England Journal of Medicine to report their findings on the prevalence of Health Policy Education in Medical Schools across the country.  The directors, David Mou, Aartik Sarma, Roshan Sethi, and Reid Merryman agreed that their first year Health Policy Course was such an important component of their medical education that they wanted to see how many other schools were offering courses in health care policy. In the summer of 2010, with support from the Commonwealth Fund and with the advice of Drs. Barbara McNeil and Haiden Huskamp, they surveyed the deans of medical education in the United States and received responses from a broad cross-section of medical schools (93 of the 160 schools conferring M.D. or D.O. degrees, a 58% response rate).  

Even though 94% of schools had some sort of health policy education in place, there was extreme variation in the number of hours offered and the structure of the coursework. The IHC directors found that more than half the schools that participated in the study are trying to increase their health policy programs, but they agreed more could be done to strengthen the curriculum.  The IHC directors conclude that “Medical schools would never grant degrees without guaranteeing proficiency in the basic sciences and clinical skills. Similarly, health policy literacy should no longer be considered an ancillary skill, but rather a core competency of a 21st-century physician.”  To read their article in full, please see the NEJM website.