Course Description

Prerequisite: None

This course introduces students to the U.S. health care and public health systems through the lens of systems science, focusing on the historical evolution, structural complexity, and dynamic interdependencies and integration among key system components. It explores how health care systems are organized to deliver services, how various interdisciplinary subsystems—including financing, regulation, workforce, and technology—interact, and how feedback loops influence policy and operational decisions. Emphasis is placed on the systems-level factors that shape health outcomes, such as stakeholder networks, governance structures, and resource flows. Students learn to analyze health policy decisions within a systems framework, considering the roles of power, incentives, and societal values in shaping priorities and trade-offs. The course equips students with systems thinking tools and vocabulary essential for understanding the emergent behavior of complex organizations, enabling them to critically assess challenges related to coordination, innovation, and sustainability. Class sessions also examine adaptive systemic responses to emerging technological, legal, and ethical dilemmas, highlighting the dynamic nature of the U.S. healthcare system as a complex adaptive system.

Format: seated and online