Introduction
The Social & Administrative Sciences (SAS) Division of the School of Pharmacy focuses on the scientific and humanistic bases for understanding and influencing interactions involving patients, medicines, caregivers, and health care systems. The Division integrates knowledge of pharmacy and pharmaceuticals with knowledge from economics, history, dissemination and implementation, health systems engineering, sociology, psychology, management sciences, communication, epidemiology, and law.
Its mission is to:
- Enable students to conduct high quality interdisciplinary research, leading to new knowledge and understanding of drug use, patient and provider communication and behavior, health outcomes, pharmacy practice, patient care systems, and the pharmacy profession within their social, economic, administrative, and historical contexts.
- Provide high quality graduate programs, preparing students for independent, theory-based research and teaching in pharmaceutical health services research, health policy, and pharmacy outcomes.
- Provide professional pharmacy students with social and administrative science knowledge, understanding, and skills required for high quality, patient-centered pharmaceutical care and practice management.
- Provide students with abilities to hold leadership and advisory roles; communicate research findings to the public, policymakers, pharmacists, and other health professionals.
HSRP Graduate Program Focus, Areas of Faculty Expertise
The Health Services Research in Pharmacy Graduate Program is housed in the SAS Division of the School of Pharmacy. The focus of the Graduate Program is on doctoral level education.
Faculty in the Division of Social & Administrative Sciences in Pharmacy are engaged in numerous and diverse research activities. These include but are not limited to: medication use in adolescents and game-based learning; stakeholder engagement and patient provider communication; human factors engineering applications and systems to improve medication safety; dissemination, implementation, and sustainment of organizational change (D&I); health care policy and program evaluation; healthcare economics and health system analysis; the pharmacy labor market and pharmaceutical economics; history of mental health and pharmaceuticals; history of pharmacy; health literacy; medication adherence; medication use in underserved populations; health equity and health disparities. For faculty and their corresponding research interests, visit https://pharmacy.wisc.edu/about-us/divisions/sas-division/faculty-research/
In addition, students have all the advantages of studying at a world class institution of higher learning. They also have opportunities to interact with top faculty in other departments on campus while pursuing their graduate studies and research. The Graduate Program offers a great deal of flexibility and can be tailored to the interests of individual students.
Specific skills that are emphasized in the HSRP program include:
- critical analysis of research literature
- formulating research problems and hypotheses
- developing proper study designs and sampling plans
- developing and using appropriate methods for measurement
- identifying and managing databases
- using advanced computer and statistical techniques, such as statistical software
- preparing research grants and scientific reports
- integrating theory into research designs and measurement
- written and oral dissemination of research
HSRP Program Learning Goals
- Demonstrate an advanced critical knowledge and in-depth application of economic,policy, and/or social behavioral analyses to the study of the interrelationships between pharmacy, pharmaceutical services, health care systems, and individuals (e.g., patients, families etc.) who interact with these systems.
- Formulate research questions, design experiments to test hypotheses, apply appropriate quantitative and qualitative methods, and evaluate evidence relevant to questions in health economics, health care systems, healthcare organization andmanagement, outcomes research, health care policy, and pharmacy services.
- Communicate, both orally and in writing, scientific knowledge, research findings, and/or core principles effectively to a range of audiences
Division Graduate Program Governance
The SAS Division has a Chair and a Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). The DGS oversees graduate student recruitment, new student orientation, student progress, assessment, issues of academic and nonacademic misconduct, and career services; acts as a primary resource to help resolve disputes between students, or between students and faculty or staff; assigns in consultation with the faculty the graduate student teaching assistantships, fellowships, student awards and other financial support; assists with planning student orientation and commencement/awards events, and works with the School of Pharmacy’s Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education to ensure the quality, competitiveness, visibility and reputation of the HSRP graduate program both on campus and at the national level.
Besides the Chair and DGS, all faculty provide oversight and guide the Graduate Program. All faculty contribute to the graduate program by reviewing and evaluating applications for admission, monitoring progress of graduate students, determining equivalency of alternate courses for degree credit, participating in and approving examining committees and examination materials, and resolving program-related issues.
Applications and Admissions
The application process closes in early January and students are typically admitted for the Fall semester only. Funding is not guaranteed in the HSRP program and is dependent on the student. Each student will be admitted into the program with a faculty advisor (also known as major advisor or major professor), who will counsel the student on the academic aspects of the individual’s plan of study throughout the Graduate Program. The student may also have co-advisors. The recruitment and admissions cycle usually runs from September to February. During this time period, students and faculty will communicate (via email, phone, video) and identify mutual research interests. Prior to applying, students are highly encouraged to seek information about funding amounts, types of appointments, fit in the program, and develop their research plans for the future.
During the application review period (January-February), individual faculty review applications and identify applicants with whom they would like to serve as the primary or co-advisor. Faculty will contact a prospective advisee and engage in discussions to answer advisee questions about the program and the prospective advisors. Additionally, the discussions are designed to help the advisors understand the prospective advisee’s goals while in the program, their research interests, and the likelihood of a successful advisor-advisee match. Faculty will discuss plans and stipulations for funding an applicant (i.e., type of appointment, length of committed funding) if the applicant is accepted to the program.