Advanced Methods in Health Services Research II

Catalog description

Application of advanced methods to health services research topics focused on empirical approaches to causal inference in nonexperimental data. HPA 567 Advanced Methods in Health Services Research II (3) The main theme of the course will be estimating causal effects using non-experimental data in health services research. These general topics, and the associated estimation methods, often go by other names; in economics they are referred to as "identification strategies," while in other disciplines they are sometimes labeled "quasi-experimental research designs." Causal inference is one of the main issues to confront in conducting health services research. Devising empirical strategies that increase the likelihood that estimates have a causal interpretation is one of the primary objectives of health services researchers. The course will have a distinctively applied bent. The goal will be to survey as many estimation strategies as possible, with particular emphasis placed on those most commonly used by empirical researchers. The objectives will be to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches, the assumptions they require, and how they have been used in practice.