The DHA Program at the Medical University of South Carolina should be viewed as the continuation of a lifelong learning experience that will elevate the participants to the next level of professional development, no matter what their position is in the delivery of health care. The program consists of two years of formal course work held during summer sessions and four-day weekend sessions every seven weeks during the school year. The faculty includes some of the nation s top leaders and educators in health care fields. Included are Arnold D. Kaluzney, Ph.D., professor of health administration and director of the Public Health Leadership Program at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and William O. Cleverley, Ph.D., professor of health services administration at The Ohio State University and managing director of the Center for Healthcare Industry Performance Studies. Papers and other required assignments are completed during periods of home study between sessions.
Plans are under way for desktop video teleconferencing for next year s class.
The third year of the program is devoted to individual, supervised doctoral project research. Dissertation topics of members of this first class include medical fraud, the high cost of defensive medicine and physician, hospital collaboration. Included in the summer program is a week-long summer institute in Washington, D.C., where participants meet with high level officials from Congress, the Health Care Finance Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Policy Research. Students also interact with representatives of interests groups, the Washington Post and National Public Radio. A second summer program emphasizes international health and takes place in Geneva, where students meet with World Health Organization officials and interact with top scientists and policy makers in the international health arena.