Public Health, Population and Healthcare Research

The Department of Public Health Sciences (PHS) has a multi-faceted role at Henry Ford, leading or co-leading a number of large externally funded research programs and serving as full collaborators in others. Many projects are national in scope. Additionally PHS faculty and staff invest a substantial effort in medical education, working with trainees and their mentors in the development and conduct of research projects. PHS work also extends into the HFHS administrative and operations world, for example, coordinating and analyzing quality-related projects and training and placing patient advisors on numerous System committees. PHS has continued to grow since its establishment in 1983 and is now the largest federally funded research program in Henry Ford Health System (HFHS).

The Center for Health Policy and Health Services Research (CHPHSR) is the focal point within the Henry Ford Health System for state and federal policy analysis and for coordinating the System’s participation in state and federal health policy demonstration projects. Staff in CHPHSR read and provide summaries of federal and state legislation and regulation, and manage the process of writing comment letters on proposed regulations to federal agencies. CHPHSR also supports System applications to participate in demonstration projects (for example, the Next Generation ACO and the Oncology Care Model demonstrations), with an analysis and “clearinghouse” function prior to the process of writing applications in order to determine which programs to apply for and which departments or business units within HFHS will be in a lead role.

A variety of health services research programs are housed within CHPHSR. These include funded projects in precision medicine, decision sciences, medication adherence, technology-based interventions, outcomes research, psychiatry, human genetics, and pharmacogenomics.