The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice
How well do medical and surgical procedures actually work? How are healthcare resources distributed and used? How do patients value medical interventions and their consequences?
Those are the fundamental questions the physicians, economists, and social scientists in The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice (TDI) have been addressing since 1989. Today, The Institute is nationally and internationally recognized for its research on health outcomes, decision making, and policy. Says Dr. Albert Mulley, Chief of General Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a longtime collaborator with many TDI faculty, "The work of The Dartmouth Institute and the professionals it trains today and in the future offer our best chance of seeing to it that people get the care they need and no less—and the care they want and no more."
For DMS students, having TDI and its joint-degree programs here on campus allows them to participate in cutting-edge research that ranges from the widely quoted Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, which documents how medical resources are distributed and used in the United States, to numerous studies showing that more health care often leads, paradoxically, to poorer health outcomes. Congress has used TDI information to formulate strategies in healthcare reform. The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy
Dr. John Wennberg, Professor of Medicine and Family and Community Medicine and former director of
The Dartmouth Institute, was a 2005 recipient of the Picker Institute Award for the Advancement of
Patient Centered Care. Wennberg was recognized for his outstanding contributions to improving the
lives of patients by making interaction with the healthcare system less stressful and more comfortable."In a country that spends 15 percent of its
gross domestic product on health care,
nothing could be more important."
and Clinical
Practice research is also reforming doctor-patient relationships
through its emphasis on shared decision making.
Recently, TDI received a $1 million gift as part of Dartmouth's
$250 million Transforming Medicine campaign. Gifts like this ensure
that the institute will continue to do just that—transform medicine.
Second year DMS student Shahrzad Ehdaivand
received her M.P.H. from The Dartmouth Institute and plans to work abroad, combining her medical and public health backgrounds to improve healthcare delivery in Africa and the Middle East. She has already been to Tanzania to study what effect pesticides might be having on residents' health. "I wanted to start a registry to collect health data the way I wanted the data to be collected," says Ehdaivand.
Founded in 1989, TDI is home to the nation's first graduate program of its kind • The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care is the first comprehensive documentation of patterns and differences of medical care around the U.S.