Reflections from the COE Health Policy Course

Jennifer E. Yeh, MD, PhD

Resident in Dermatology at Harvard Combined Dermatology Residency Training Program

PGY-3

03/11/2020

Exercise at the COE HPC

Throughout the course of my medical education and training, I realized that I did not have a firm grasp of healthcare policies and consequently felt uncomfortable conversing on these topics with other healthcare professionals as well as friends and family. Meanwhile, I had become very interested in ideas surrounding healthcare reform due to current events. Attending this week-long course in health policy was a great decision and something I would highly recommend to all trainees, no matter how little or how much background they have in healthcare policy.

The engaging lectures from world-renowned leaders in Health Policy, as well as the unique role-playing activity of contract negotiation between health care system/physician group/payers really opened my eyes to the functions of healthcare systems and accountable care organizations, as well as the impact of recent health policy legislation.

Exercise at the COE HPC

This Centers of Expertise (COE) Health Policy Course is also one of the few instances during which trainees from all specialties interact with each other. As the careers in health policy panel discussion highlighted, all physicians regardless of specialty are direct providers of healthcare and therefore have valuable insights and key roles to play in healthcare reform.

I can confidently say that my participation in this COE course has made me a better-informed and well-rounded dermatologist who looks forward to sharing what I’ve learned with my program by inviting speakers from this course to give talks during our didactic sessions. I’m also excited to dive into books recommended by speakers including “The Price We Pay” by Marty Makary and “Man’s Fourth Best Hospital” by Samuel Shem.