HMP Governance Lab: Introduction to Health Policy
HMP Governance Lab: Introduction to Health Policy
1.4 HMP 615: What's in the syllabus?
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Profs Greer and Jarman take you through the syllabus for HMP 615, Introduction to Health Policy. Learn about expectations for the class and what Professor Greer is hoping you'll get out of it.
- PH 384 Canvas site
- HMP 615 Canvas site
- Find work from the HMP Governance Lab at www.hmpgovernancelab.org and on Twitter @HMPgovlab
- Music: 'Blippy Trance' by Kevin MacLeod
Hello and welcome to the HMP Governance Lab podcast. Now today we're going to be doing something quite specific -going through the syllabus for HMP 615. So if that is not what you're here for, go and take a look on our podcast feed. We also have a syllabus introduction for the other classes. Okay, so I'm here today with Scott Greer, who is the instructor for HMP 615: introduction to public health policy. I'm Holly Jarman, and I'm also faculty in the Department of Health Management and policy. Hi, Scott.
Scott Greer :Hi. I'm delighted to be here and I'm delighted to be teaching all of you in this very exciting autumn term of 2020. I'll be teaching alongside Michelle Falconbach. There's another podcast where you'll hear me speak with her about her background and what brought her to Michigan to be teaching you. And Holly and I'll have a separate one where we talk about each other.
Holly Jarman :Yep, so keep an eye out for that on our podcast feed. There'll be an introductory podcast where we kind of talk about ourselves a little bit more so you can get to know us. Today, we're going to go through the syllabus. So I'm going to guide you guys through and Scott is going to tell us about how the class is working. But before we get to that, I kind of want to know what your overall teaching philosophy is for this class. Scott, what is your approach given the moment that we're in?
Scott Greer :So there's two salient things about autumn of 2020: one is that public health, politics and policy are really front and center. We're in the middle of a global pandemic. We're in one of the most important elections in American history that will take place halfway through the class. And we're also in the middle of frankly, unprecedented reckoning with race and racism, which is intimately linked to public health in the United States. So this means that I know a lot of you are dealing with situations that you've never dealt with before. teaching a large class through podcasts is an example of one that we're dealing with that I've never dealt with before. And so we really thought, how can we strip this class down to the most important things for your career going forward, and handle it in a way that really deals with the big issues that we're seeing today? So there's three things we're really trying to achieve in this class. The first is that you understand the broad political environment, the broad strategic landscape within which public health happens. That includes -what are the forces that brought us to where we are as we start the autumn semester in 2020 at the University of Michigan, much of which will come through readings and recorded content like these podcasts and be discussed in your discussion sections. Secondly, is to start to think about how to change the structure in a direction that's better for people's health and well being. That means essentially two things. One is, we're going to get into some policy analysis, policy advocacy, how to think like a policymaker how to make arguments to a policymaker, how to convince them. The other is applied advocacy skills, how do you write in a way and formulate your arguments in a way that will be compelling to somebody who can advance your policy agenda. So that's really what we want to do. Get a sense of the strategic landscape, get a sense of the policy analysis that's necessary to try and change it and get a sense of the advocacy and political engagement skills necessary to turn your policy analysis into a policy.
Holly Jarman :So if you're following along with us at this point, in the syllabus, you can see the specific course objectives, which is pretty much what Scott just described. And you can also take a look at the competencies for the course -it is an accredited course and so we're trying to teach you something as part of a larger program of study. What about the class format for this year, Scott, because it's a very different environment than people might be used to. It's certainly a different environment than you're used to.
Scott Greer :I certainly hope to actually see some of you face to face physically at some point in your two years at the University of Michigan, but it's not going to be this autumn. Here's the problem we've got. Normally a class, this class, is fairly large. There's lots of individualized group work during class times, I'm circulating along with the GSI, who will be Michelle Falconbach, and we're engaging with you and we're able to update the class on the fly. This year, we're on zoom. And we've all had plenty of experience with zoom and the way it sort of sucks the life out of conversations. So what we're doing is we're dividing you into discussion sections in HMP 615. There's going to be three sections that's around about the 15-17 person threshold where you can actually have a good seminar conversation on zoom. You will meet once a week with one of the instructors, Michelle or me, and have a discussion in two parts -with a short break to recover from zooming- of both the kind of skills, strategy, concepts that we're talking about, and an interesting case study. And this year finding interesting case studies wasn't hard at all. So if you're in groups one or two, you'll have a class section with an instructor as discussion focused as we can make it on Tuesday. And if you're in group three, you'll have it on Thursday. What are you doing, you ask, in the course time that is not in with an instructor? The answer is that you have what we call group time, in which there's space carved out in the weekly schedule for you to work together on a number of group projects that we'll be discussing, above all what we call your policy challenge packet. So what this means is that in your mandatory class time, once a week, you will be with a group of people discussing the week's readings with the instructor. And once a week, you will be with the same group of people working on your longer term group assignments. Now, if you want to talk to us outside that time, we'll be having policy salon, open office hours, when Michelle or I or both of us will be there on a regular basis. And you can come in and talk about anything and sometimes we'll have special topics.
Holly Jarman :So can you tell me what a policy salon is, Scott, in case people don't know?
Scott Greer :Well, we're referring to great 17th and 18th century European traditions where there would be a fixed time that on Tuesday you go to so and so's house and drink tea and have superb intellectual conversation. You can drink tea while you zoom with us. But the key thing is that it's a form of office hours because there's a lot of times when putting a bunch of heads together is better than one. So Michelle or I -there'll be a schedule- or both Michelle and I, will be available on zoom at a given time. And you can come around if you want to talk about your assignments, if you want to talk about things we've discussed in class, if you want to talk about things that are relevant to class that have been happening in this crazy news year.
Holly Jarman :The thing I like about the concept of a salon is it's actually a bit subversive. It's the idea that people could gather in a shared space and share ideas with each other that they might not necessarily talk about, more broadly within society. So I like the idea that there's maybe the freedom to talk about things outside of the class syllabus, and relate to what's happening right now in maybe a freer, broader way.
Scott Greer :And it gives us some flexibility because it is voluntary, you don't have to come. So for example, there's no guarantee that the election of 2020 is going to end on November 4, or November 5, or seventh or ninth and policy salon gives us an opportunity to deal with these kind of rolling issues.
Holly Jarman :So as you say, in the syllabus, many of us are going to have issues right now to do with family, caring for others, caring for oneself, and health issues to that make it hard to prepare and attend, and certainly make it hard to be your best all the time. So I like that your teaching approach is kind of flexible in that regard. And you're trying to build in a lot of prepared interaction, but then allow a lot of flexibility in terms of the requirements for preparing for those classes.
Scott Greer :Exactly. So let me underline this- that this is going to be a hard year... it's already been a hard year, a lot of people are coming into this exhausted right when it's late August and we're supposed to be recharged. And I think it's pretty much guaranteed that there's going to be a lot of developments over the next few months that might take it out of us. So here's essentially what we think about your work in this class- you have asynchronous podcast listening, can listen to us anywhere, anytime you want to listen to a podcast. There's readings, and I've tried to make them short and punchy. And to connect the broad skill discussion of things like agenda setting, with very concrete things that are happening right now. So you can apply the concepts in order to understand better and more effectively act on what's happening. Then there's written assignments in group where you have lots of group time to work on them and prepare and work with each other. And then finally, there's the discussion sections where you'll be prepared from having listened to the podcasts, you'll be prepared from having read the readings, we will have prepared by talking about how to draw out the most important lessons. And we really encourage you to come to those even if you have to participate only via chat. We still really encourage you to come to engage, to share ideas and talk about some of the things that we're doing.
Holly Jarman :So what should you do if you're taking this class and you have a particular problem, maybe something that you would like to talk to a professor about in private? Or you need help in some other way from the university? What should you do in those circumstances.
Scott Greer :So if it's kind of a broad class problem, you know, I don't know quite how I should approach this issue in the policy challenge packet, or I'd like to improve my memo writing policy salon's the first place to go because that's the kind of problem that very rarely is unique to one person. If it's a little more serious, for example, due to the pandemic or other current events, you're having trouble keeping up with assignments, you want to talk first of all to Michelle, the GSI. And if it's a problem that's beyond something she can deal with, then you want to come to me. And I want to underline one really important thing about all of this, which is that this rule applies -and then this is a rule that applies for For every class- but it particularly applies this semester, which is seek help bring people into the loop sooner rather than later. It's far easier to solve a problem in September or October than it is in November or December. So as soon as you get a sense that things might be spinning a little bit out of control, start to reach out to us start to reach out to other university resources.
Holly Jarman :Here's the nitty gritty part Scott, let's talk a little bit about the required assignments and how the grades are going to be handed down.
Scott Greer :So as I... probably because it would be so difficult to imitate a normal class, we stripped this class down to the essentials, there's a pass fail quiz on public health essentials, where you need to know it. You can take it and take it and take it until you've passed it. The key thing is that you know it and also that you'd be able to have a good conversation about the topic. Once that's out of the way, we have four kinds of written assignment -or For written assignments in three kinds- first of all, there's policy memos. A policy memo is in many ways, the key written product of the real world of policy and politics. And it looks a lot like the key product of any world of formal bureaucratic organizations such as big providers, systems, or insurers where the ability to produce a short convincing evidence based concise document with an idea is what is valued. So you'll be writing to policy memos to hone your skills. Each of those is for 20 points. There's a rubric in the syllabus. But the key thing with policy memo is writing to somebody who can actually do something and making a case that will be persuasive to them, that's well evidenced, that's well argued, that's well phrased, and it's relevant to what they're trying to do. Oh, but I hear some of you say, in the organizations I know, it's actually all slide decks and PowerPoints. Here's the thing. PowerPoint is great. Even if it weren't great PowerPoint is so big a part of our lives that you have to work in it. But PowerPoint makes it really easy to have sloppy thinking. A lot of the time, bad writing happens when you actually aren't quite sure what you're trying to say, when you're not entirely sure how these ideas match up. That's when you begin to get fluffy. That's when you begin to repeat yourself in slightly different ways. So that's why writing is really important because writing as a skill is overrated. Thinking clearly enough to write well, is actually the skill that all of us have to work to attain. And if you've thought about it clearly, clearly enough to write a good memo, then you can easily do a compelling PowerPoint.
Holly Jarman :Yeah, so you know where this kind of clear thinking will help you? Case competitions. That kind of thing requires this very clear thinking, putting an argument together and then communicating it well. So this really is an applicable skill. So there are two policy memos worth 40 points, if you're following along with us in the syllabus, and you can find good examples of the policy memos that have been written in the past on the HMP 615 Canvas site, right? So next is the policy challenge.
Scott Greer :This is the big one- 40 points of your grade, and a real opportunity to show your policy thinking, your understanding of the strategic landscape, and your persuasive advocacy skills. It's put together as a group, and it's a packet of different things. There's three key pieces of content and the each matter. The first is a white paper. This is 10 pages maximum double spaced, so it's not a book. And the purpose of the white paper is to make a compelling and evidenced case that somebody who really wants to test your idea to destruction can read and find compelling. This is where you really start your research, the clarity of your thinking, the usefulness of your policy ideas. It's the core document.
Holly Jarman :So white papers are another thing that gets used a lot in advocacy, gets used in politics, and also gets used in other organizations to communicate with a bit more depth, a particular argument, and in particular, backing that argument up with evidence. So a white paper is that defined idea within a single document.
Scott Greer :And even if powerful people don't necessarily read the white paper, they delegate others to read the white paper in order to make sure they're not buying a bad idea. What do powerful people read? They read executive summaries and one pagers. Each of these has a different function. The executive summary, which is no more than two pages, single spaced, is the concise summary of your argument with how it's put together and why we should believe it and why we should listen in the first place. It's a summary for executives. It's different from, more elaborate and more rigorous than the one pager, which is yet another art form. Because when you get a meeting with a powerful person, say, for example, the Legislative Director of a member of Congress, you always want to bring a one pager, often known as a leave behind, you'll often put it in a nice folder or something. And that one pager is the very accessible summary for people who haven't been thinking about your topic five minutes ago, who aren't necessarily experts, who want to have a very fast understanding of what your idea is, why it's a good idea and why they should listen to you.
Holly Jarman :And the one page is a real test, right? Because you've got to take everything that was in your white paper and turn it into a single sheet that really communicates clearly to your audience. And so it's kind of a test of that clear thinking that Scott was referring to earlier.
Scott Greer :So you have to in the white paper, think clearly enough to persuade an analyst that they're not recommending a bad idea to their boss. That's a lot of evidence, that's a lot of policy analysis, you have to write an executive summary that will persuade the boss very concisely containing all the technical content. And then you need to do a backflip and write a one pager that would attract the attention and motivate somebody who isn't thinking about your topic isn't an expert. And what you really want for that person actually, is for them to hand the one pager to somebody else and say, Look into this, get their white paper, tell me if I need to do this.
Holly Jarman :So this assignment is graded group project, right. So can you tell us a little bit about how that works? I think that HMP students really enjoy working in groups together, and they find it a rewarding experience, but obviously, we have to have some ground rules about how that's going to work.
Scott Greer :Well, I've had, as you say, really good experiences with HMP students. And typically, when somebody is not performing, it's something a lot bigger than laziness, or they spending too much time playing beer pong. Public service announcement -there's a pandemic on, don't play beer pong. We have a couple of things built in, though, to make sure that we continue our good run. The first is that there's a policy challenge interim report. This is mentioned in the syllabus, it's pass fail, you have to do it. And basically, that's where you as a group, write a little formal report on what you're doing, what the topic is basically how your argument works. It's about a page, it's not a big deal. It's just to force you at this gateway to say what you're doing with time to amend it if you need to. And also for us to have a look and see if this is a good idea. Most of the time, it's not going to be that important. But it's always good in a project to have a gateway so that you can do a check and be rigorous and determined that you are on track. And that's in addition, of course, to talking to us, for example, in policy salon.
Holly Jarman :Right. So you'll be getting feedback regularly on the group work but this is more of a formal hurdle to make sure that you're all organized and working together. What happens though Scott in the event that someone is having trouble participating in their group work or there's some other issue with the dynamics of the group? The first port of call, and this solves a lot of our problems, is simply to come speak with us -speak with the GSI, speak with me -because typically there's a very simple solution. So the big takeaway is, as with any other problem in the class, if something's going wrong, tell us sooner rather than later. And we've usually found there's pretty simple interventions that can fix the problem. And the final part of your grade is going to be written participation in the classes because we know that participating in class through a chat or from Wi Fi somewhere that you wouldn't normally choose to be working, or in a loud or unpleasant environment is really hard. What we're doing is the seminars are optional, but we want to make sure that you're prepared and engaged by writing short pass fail pieces, five of them, You can pick the days when you write them, which simply synthesize the readings on the case study or the theories and bring your opinions of them. What did you read? And this is a skill of being able to read a variety of different things, bring them together and summarize them. And that will equip you to have the best possible conversation in the actual group discussions, and will also allow us to track the extent to which you're following the class and reading and synthesizing. So you've got one more thing here under assignments, which is presentations, which I believe are part of the group work, Scott?
Scott Greer :They are. That's where in the group time as your policy challenge packets start to come together, you present them to other groups and get feedback. So here we are. Here's the electronic version of our one pager. What do you think is our policy do good is our approach to selling it good, and so forth. It's peer review. It allows all of you to sharpen your skills, both by helping others and also by thinking, well, I've criticized them for this, should I criticize myself for it as well?
Holly Jarman :Okay, so that's all the assignments. That's good to know. Hopefully, that made a lot of sense. What should students do if they have questions about anything that's in the syllabus about the assignments, or anything that you've just said?
Scott Greer :Have a good look on canvas and in the syllabus because there's a lot of text in the syllabus, and it's a standing joke that if you want to keep a secret, you should put it in the syllabus. It's also a standing joke that there's always mistakes in the syllabus, but that's a different joke.
Holly Jarman :I always put in the syllabus every year that there will be cupcakes in the last session and then I see who noticed that there will be cupcakes.
Scott Greer :Last time I taught this in person I showed up with a bushel of apples and the GSI showed up with cupcakes. And I am sad to report that there are limits to 615 dedication to public health. I got to carry some apples home.
Holly Jarman :Hey, I think cupcakes Count under self care.
Scott Greer :By the end of any semester they, they certainly do.
Holly Jarman :So if there's a question about this, students should look at the syllabus first?
Scott Greer :Then go to the GSI.
Holly Jarman :Okay.
Scott Greer :And then if it's a real headache, the GSI will escalate it up to me.
Holly Jarman :So I noticed in the syllabus here, Scott, you've got a class code of conduct. So can you tell us a little bit about that? There's a lot of well thought through policies that formulate the SPH and University of Michigan codes of conduct. But there's really just a couple of basic principles. The first one is kindness, respect, politeness. It's my job as an instructor, It's the job of all the instructors, to make people feel comfortable in developing and expressing their opinions and in engaging with others and in learning. An environment where people are made to feel afraid or victimized is not an environment where anybody's going to learn. So it's important to us that There is a ethos of kindness in the class that you take people's ideas and thinking seriously, and that we all are capable of and willing, and able to speak up without any consequences to share ideas and want to underline -Don't be afraid to speak up. Your perspective could be exactly what we want to hear. But do think before you speak. You have here also some more resources for seeking help and support, which I think are really important.
Scott Greer :Indeed, there's a lot of university support mechanisms, and we've got specific things like phone numbers and links in the syllabus that you can click onto. there is additional information for public health students on The Heights. We have an embedded CAPS Counselor at SPH. There's an office of student engagement and practice, which is there to help you. Now, insofar as it affects the class itself, it amounts to thing I've already said a few times, which is tell us earlier rather than later, be it a personal issue, illness, illness in the family, unusually high workload, religious obligation, behave like you would at work, inform us as quickly as possible so that we can talk about an extension or a substitution. Because we want you to learn and succeed in this class. It isn't High School. We're not here to teach you to attend. We're beyond that. And so we want to work with you to make sure that you learn the things that are actually important.
Holly Jarman :Yeah, and don't fall into the trap of assuming, Oh, well. The circumstances that are affecting me are not somehow serious enough or good enough to merit an exception to the rules. Please don't fall into that trap. Please do come and discuss. You've also got the Writing Lab in here, which sounds really helpful and I think would be useful to a lot of students.
Scott Greer :I think everybody loves it. And I can tell before and after when a student has been to the Writing Lab. So there's a Google Calendar, you make a virtual appointment. I strongly recommend As soon as you have something to write.
Holly Jarman :Next you're discussing in the syllabus -voting, I think that's great that you've got that in here.
Scott Greer :This is going to be one of the most important elections of any of our lifetimes. I think that's well established. And voting in the United States is hard. It is harder than it ought to be. But that's not particularly likely to change between now and November. So there's a page full of information. There's also background on what different states are doing and why this matters. That includes the very high likelihood that we're going to have a contested election, and that on election night when people are used to having the election called instead we're going to have chaos, your vote's really going to matter. So I'll run down a couple of basics. If you vote in Michigan, there's a website in the syllabus that you can go to. You can volunteer to work at the polls on Election Day, or you can be paid. You can vote absentee. That can mean a mail-in ballot or it can also mean dropping it into Dropbox in the jurisdiction where you vote. And it can mean voting in person. The University of Michigan has a govote.umich.edu website, which is to help you vote in any state. The International Center has useful resources for international students on American elections. There's even a UM vote that you can text 833-486-8683 and a voter registration questions email account that can help you with everything down to free stamps and forms. So have a good look at the voting page. And please register to vote, because this is almost certainly one of the most important elections in American history. And I don't think you're gonna feel very good if you sit it out.
Holly Jarman :Can you say a little bit about how you're going to be dealing with the election in class, for example, I notice here that you're not going to take attendance in election week.
Scott Greer :And we're not going to take attendance in election week because given the difficulties of electoral administration in 2020, which includes a pandemic, I don't think I can make it a requirement that you be in class, particularly on the Tuesday. Furthermore, this is an election that might leave people with new obligations and new emotionally depleting things to do, which is why it's the entire week that we're not taking attendance.
Holly Jarman :Yeah, that sounds fair. Okay, so after that in the syllabus, you'll see a summary of the topic sessions and the assignment deadlines. Hopefully, that's pretty straightforward. Is there anything in the syllabus that's coming up a topic that you're really excited about, Scott?
Scott Greer :I'm excited about all of them, including because of the challenge of trying to make this sunny- because while there's a lot going horribly wrong in the United States, this is also a time of historically unique possibility. It's not clear that any of our lives are going to see a year with as many potentially big things changing in America as 2020 and they're exactly at the nexus of politics and public health. So these topics are extraordinary. You have for example, Black Lives Matter, defund the police, that argument. We've seen the largest demonstrations in American history. This summer, the percent of the American population that was in the streets dwarfed the civil rights movement and Vietnam War protests combined. Furthermore, for the first time in American history, we've seen a really significant percentage of white Americans agree that structural racism, white supremacy and police brutality are problems. This is unprecedented in the history of the United States. But there's other things, there's the Affordable Care Act's 10th anniversary, the Trump administration and a number of states are still in courts trying to undo the Affordable Care Act. But at the same time, it's become so woven into our infrastructure of healthcare and public health, that it's really hard to imagine what the consequences would be like we're the Supreme Court to overturn it. We have the election, we have the pandemic. So one of the cases that we're doing is on what might look ill matched, but I'm really happy about it. It's tobacco 21 and masking. Tobacco 21 is how do you get retailers to stop selling tobacco products to people under 21? How do you get local or state governments to work together? How do you make sure that the right people are paying the penalties for violating the law? And that's a lot like the problems of implementation of masking. Who exactly is supposed to make sure that when you walk into Target, you're wearing a mask? Is it Target's problem? Is that the individual employee's problem? Can they call the police? Should they call the police? Which police? There's a lot of good issues in there, which are actually both crucial to public health, and a really interesting insight into how power works in the United States.
Holly Jarman :Yeah, I'm really excited about that topic, because tobacco 21 research has been part of my agenda for a couple of years now. And we've been trying to use some of the lessons from that around responsive regulation, which means using the authority, particularly of the police, as a last resort, not a first resort, and trying to build relationships with retailers in your local community. And I think that's really relevant to contemporary topics like masking where there's the, as you say, all these issues of local coordination and compliance. And so I'm excited to talk to you guys about that a little later in the session.
Scott Greer :And I want to say something right here, which is that public health is basically about identifying causes of avoidable morbidity and mortality and addressing them. And that naturally means that a lot of our topics are pretty bleak. And between gun violence, Black Lives Matter, maternal mortality, which is a depressing story and a story of health inequalities, the Affordable Care Act and its limitations and the opposition COVID-19 the election, tobacco control, more COVID-19 plus masking and Flint water, there's a decent chance that one or more of these topics is going to be be triggering -is going to make you feel unhappy. First of all, if this means that you can't participate fully in a discussion, we'll get it. You don't have to turn on your video. Also, what we're hoping we can do here is things that can make you very angry, we're going to start channeling them into an understanding of how the political system gave us these outcomes and what you might be able to do as an advocate and as a policy thinker to change those outcomes. So Flint, and COVID-19, and gun violence, these are all cases of the American political system producing outcomes that aren't obviously good for public health or democracy. Instead of bemoaning that or getting as angry as a lot of people do get angry. Let's see what we can do to try and channel that into a sophisticated ability to change the policies and change the politics.
Holly Jarman :Yeah, I'm definitely in support of that. I'm hoping that you all get the sense of how you can change systems. Because sometimes I think in public health, we focus on the narrow policy or even the details of a policy in a very narrow way. But we need to think about systems and who those systems are working for and how you can potentially change them. So that means not just thinking about public health policy in a narrow way, but thinking about the electoral system. Who has power within political systems, who has the money in political systems and how is it spent? So bigger picture things where you can take a look at that and say, actually, what I should be doing is not just caring about this specific part of the ACA but mobilizing to try and change the conversation around health care access within the United States. Politics is the art of the possible. usually that means figuring out what's possible. Sometimes it means changing what's possible. Yeah, I often say you should try to cultivate what I call a policy imagination. So imagine an alternative view and try to think about how you could put that into place. I think that's actually increasingly an important part of advocacy, not just looking and saying, Okay, well, I think this particular narrow policy could get passed in this legislative session, but also in parallel, having a broader idea of how to change the system so that you get consideration of a different, wider set of policies.
Scott Greer :And we hope that these case studies combined with the conceptual topics will illuminate it. So the key thing is that for every week, which I'll remind you involves one intensive 80 minute seminar with an instructor. There's a topic and a case. So for example, on September 28, the topic is agenda setting, how things get onto the political agenda and what that means. And the case is gun violence, how gun violence gets onto and off the political agenda and what happens. The idea is to use the case study, which is interesting and important, as an opportunity to think through and use these topics to figure out how agenda setting has and has not worked to improve the public health management of gun violence and what can be done about it to think about how maternal mortality can be eliminated, and reduced by thinking more clearly about equity and efficiency and advocacy and policy design.
Holly Jarman :And I can't say enough how many times alumni from the program have come back to me in some of our events and said, You know what, I'm glad that I was pushed through some of these courses to consider the health system in a broader way to think about public health and population health and to think about the political system, the regulatory system, because in an management role within an organization, you can get stuck on details And so that bigger picture thinking is also important in all kinds of managerial contexts, because what we want to do is create rounded healthcare leaders. And that kind of imagination and vision can be incredibly relevant for thinking about how the whole system should function and thinking about your organization's position within that system.
Scott Greer :And if you think about it, gun violence, maternal mortality, the Affordable Care Act, COVID-19, therapeutics, vaccines, the election masking, tobacco control, lead poisoning. These are all issues where if you're not dealing with them from a health care provider or unsure, you're clearly not dealing with the real issues facing your organization.
Holly Jarman :Okay, so that's the rundown of the syllabus for HMP 615. Where should students go to take a look at some of the readings?
Scott Greer :It's going to be on canvas and everything clicks through -you don't need to buy any books. What I recommend you do as quickly as possible, is have a look at the fairly short and I hope entertaining and thought provoking readings for the first week. The key thing is that Canvas is set up with the module scheme. So you click every week, and it'll have the links to the podcasts, the links to the readings, and the links to any assignments.
Holly Jarman :Great. And if they have questions they should get in touch first with Michelle Falkenbach the GSI and then with you, Professor Scott Greer, right?
Scott Greer :Yep.
Holly Jarman :Great. Well, I hope this podcast was informative. And we're looking forward to doing more of these on some of the different topics that you'll be encountering this semester. And that's it from us for today.
Scott Greer :Thank you very much.
Holly Jarman :This was a podcast of the University of Michigan Health Management and Policy Governance Lab. If you're interested in our research, you can find more podcasts and blog posts on our website, www.hmpgovernancelab.org, and and you can follow us on Twitter @HMPgovlab.