Population Health Management (MSc)
PHM offers you the tools to navigate through, and give direction to, the complex and changing health care landscape by using an interdisciplinary approach. Become the broker to improve health and societal outcomes for citizens and patients.
Programme overview
The two-year Master’s programme Population Health Management considers health care from an interdisciplinary population oriented point of view:
- Data: medical data sources are growing and ways to analyse and interpret big data are improving. Populations and subpopulations are better identified based on a more holistic risk profile and interventions are targeted respectively.
- Governance: the current fragmented organisational infrastructure makes it hard to approach health care from multiple disciplines and work together to offer the best care possible. Consequences of alternative forms of governance between professionals and organisations are studied.
- Behaviour: even though diseases look similar in different populations, behavior of people and providers is not alike, and thus the way people deal with their disease differs. Intervention strategies should adopt to these differences.
Educational methods
We use a variety of educational methods, such as:
- Online lectures
- Blended learning
- Working groups
- Self study
- Peer reviewed assignments
- Intensive on campus group week
- Guest lectures
Programme structure
Curious to seewhat your first and second year will look like? Check out the full programme structure for the first and second year:
First year
The first year of the programme consists of 10 courses of 4 weeks each. The first two weeks of each course consist of independent, online education (supported by optional work groups). The third week is an intensive, fulltime on-campus week to expand your skills through groupwork. The four-week period is concluded with the individual reflection and test week. To make the important and interesting connection to the working field, you will execute two project cases parallel to the ten courses.
All first year courses
Fundamentals of PHM (5EC)
Study Design (5EC)
Health and Health Behaviour (4EC)
Responsible Data Analytics (5EC)
Governance (4EC)
Projectcase I (6EC)
Predictive Analytics (5EC)
Syndemics (5EC)
Alternative Payment Models (4EC)
Panel Management Next Level (5EC)
Implementation: put PHM into action (5EC)
Projectcase II (5EC)
Examples of first year courses
Governance
Integration of care increasingly requires collaboration between professionals and organizations in health care networks. Apparent competing interests need to be aligned for the health of the individual and the population. These developments go beyond every day practice and require advanced competences and skills in governance, organization and planning.
Syndemics
In disadvantaged populations, accumulations of risk factors intertwine with complex social problems that lead to an excessive burden of disease and interventions that are ineffective. In syndemic research and interventions, "context is key," as structural factors such as poverty, stigma, and oppressive social relations, are considered causally involved in pathways to poor health. In this course you will gain knowledge of syndemic theories and learn how to operationalise these in research and interventions.
Panel Management
For specific patient groups, a new strategic care pathway will be designed, based on a solid data analysis. This pathway needs to be implemented and monitored using existing data registries. Specific challenges are the implementation in an network of competing interests and the monitoring on indicators based on existing data registries. The effect of these new pathways for specific populations is assessed using mix methods techniques.
Second year
The first 30 ects of the second year are reserved for deepening your knowledge, skills and competences in one of the four in depth specialisations: Governance, Syndemics, Data Science or Epidemiology. Within the chosen field, you are allowed to make your own individualized programme. In order to help you make a good choice and create your individual programme, the coordinators organize two orientation weeks during the first year.
You will get the opportunity to follow courses at Leiden University or universities abroad combined with internships in national or international organizations or research institutes; we have a broad network of international partner universities. All acquired competences will come together in the final piece of the Master’s programme: the final research project.
The courses and internships per specialisation can be found below. You can find a more detailed overview here.
Courses:
- Collaborative Governance
- Data-Driven Policymaking
- Public Policy and Values
- Management and Change of Public Organizations(in het Nederlands)
- Regulatory Policy: Theory and Practice
- Visual Anthropology of Health
- Imigration, Creativity and Health: Arts and Communication
- Design Thinking for the Greater Good: Innovation in the Social Sector
- Design Practice in Business: Spark Innovation Like a Designer
- One Health Summer School
Examples Intership Topics:
- How can Health Professionals Promote a Healty Lifestyle from a Positive/Population Health Approach?
- Finding the Way Towards more PHM on the Central Coast
- Implementation Strategy Chronic Care
- Maternal Health
- Access to Medicines in Vulnerable Populations
- Implementation of PHM in the Region of Ede, The Netherlands
- The Role of Planetary Health for PHM
- Health Data Governance
- Striving Towards an Optimal Format for the Organization Group Consultations
Courses:
- Qualitative Research Methods Course
- Basic Therapeutic Skills
- Designing Interventions for Behavioral Change
- Psychological Assessment and Interventions in Chronic Disease
- Cognitive Behavior Interventions
- Medical Anthropology
- Cross-Cultural Psychology of Health and Illness
- Mixed Methods
Examples Intership Topics:
- 4th Trimester Arizona Village Evaluation Tool
- Heart Disease in Pregnant Women
- Traineeship European Parliament
- Qualitative LGBTQ Research Project
- FRESHAIR4Life Project
- Mom-and-Baby Unit for Maternal Mental Health
Courses:
- Introduction to Machine Learning
- Data Science in Practice
- Software Development and Product Management
- Introduction to Deep Learning
- Social Network Analysis for Computer Scientists
- Missing Data and Causal Inference
- CS50's Introduction to Programming with Python
- Python for Data Science and Machine Learning Bootcamp
- Machine Learning with Imbalanced Data
- Systems Thinking
- Big Data Analytics
- Text Mining
Examples Intership Topics:
- Data Science in Relation to Policy and Implementation
- Literature review
- Diabetes Type 2 Referral Optimization
Courses:
- Capita Selecta
- Survival Analysis
- Meta-Analysis
- Causal Inference
- Repeated Measurements
- Sex, Reproduction and Development
- Text Mining
- Prediction Modelling and Intervention Research
- START-Course
- Using R for Data Analysis
- Regression Analysis
- Meta Analysis
- Biostatistics in Public Health Specialization
Examples Intership Topics:
- Data-Driven Policy Making
- Unwanted Pregnancy
- Using Proteomics to Identify Risk Factors for Cardiometabolic Diseases in a Dutch Population
- Physical Activity in Parkinson's Disease
- Outcome Differences Between Insulin Resistance Subtypes in Adults aged 45-65
- Health Monitor - Substance Use in Adults
- Dutch Obesity Study
International experience
The international nature of the scientific field of PHM and its worldwide relevance demands an international environment.We encourage youto broaden you international scope during your second year by taking courses or arrange an internship abroad at one of our partner universities (among others:Johns Hopkins University Baltimore (USA), University of Newcastle (Australia), University of Cape Town (South Africa) and University of Toronto (Canada) or through our partner organisations (the LERU Associationand the International Foundation of Integrated Care (IFIC)).
Student Support Services
All of our teaching staff is involved in your professional development. Especially your tutor encourages you during individual and group sessions to reflect on issues which are important for your professional development towards a PHM expert. If you have other study-related issues which need special attention, our study advisor (studyadvisorphm@lumc.nl) can be consulted for everything related to your studies, such as study progress, study delays, personal circ*mstances, study-related choices, professional prospects and additional challenges.
