Fellow Training in Medical Finance Research

The business of medicine is a complex structure involving an intimate interaction of existing health policy and finance. A sound understanding of the mechanisms involved with the establishment of and appropriations for health policy is required in order to efficiently plan and implement health care decisions. Similarly, responsible use of fiscal resources derived from existing health policy is a duty of all health care providers.

Paying for health care and for health care research is becoming increasingly expensive. The careful study of financial systems can help reduce the cost health care and optimize the allocation of resources. This will result in a myriad of benefits to the patient, the provider, and the third party payor.

Towards these ends, we propose that the scholarly study of health policy and medical finance is a legitimate and important pursuit for today's students in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine.

Concept

The program integrates didactic and practical experiences for Health Policy and Medical Finance within the Division of Neonatology, the Duke Center for Clinical Health Policy Research, the Duke University Center for Child and Family Policy, the Neonatal-Perinatal Research Institute and the Duke University Health System. Upon successful completion of the training program, the Fellow is expected to have completed sufficient course work to be eligible for a Graduate Certificate from the Health Policy Certificate Program (Duke University) and to be conversant in medical finance analysis and terminology.

Sponsor

Neonatal-Perinatal Research Institute

Supervisor

David Tanaka, M.D. Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics.

Coursework

Introduction to statistics
JMP (graphical statistical software) courses
ANOVA and regression analysis
Health policy: Two core and two elective courses from curriculum

Optional Coursework

Microeconomics
Internship in Hospital Administration
Management engineering, Cost Accounting, Cost Analysis

Practical Experience

Fellows can develop a research program in health policy or medical finance. Possible projects include but are not limited to a revenue-cycle analysis, cost analysis, a public policy reimbursement analysis, process improvement and development of financial data mining tools.

Objectives

• Certificate- or master's-level understanding of health policy
• Demonstrated competency in leading multidisciplinary teams to effect process change
• Demonstrated understanding of financial processes and their interaction with existing public and health policy
• Able to effectively analyze financial resources at both hospital and professional levels