Health and Health Care Policy Research

Pardee RAND students contribute to RAND’s portfolio of research on health and health care in the U.S. and around the globe. Recent topics include responding to and mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic, allocating limited health care resources, reducing hospital spending, and evaluating health care reform options and payment systems. Students work in areas such as public health, disability, aging, and mental and behavioral health, and many also develop expertise in health economics and outcomes research.

Student-Faculty Research Collaborations

Through project-based research and other experiential learning opportunities, students work with faculty mentors to obtain professional skills and tacit knowledge that courses alone cannot convey. Here are a few recent projects and their resulting research.

  • Two women hugging in a group setting, photo by FatCamera/Getty Images

    Evaluating WhyWeRise 2020 and 2021

    WhyWeRise is a social marketing campaign focused on prevention of, and early intervention for, mental health challenges among Los Angeles County residents. Surveys by Ingrid Estrada-Darley (cohort '19) and Profs. Rebecca Collins and Nicole Eberhart suggest that this campaign reached a racially, culturally, and economically diverse group of county residents, fostered a feeling of support among those exposed to the campaign, and boosted residents' awareness of local resources.

  • Woman talking with her doctor, photo by FatCamera/Getty Images

    Carve-In Models for Specialty Behavioral Health Services: Lessons for California

    Many states separate, or "carve out," Medicaid financing of behavioral health services from that for other types of health care, but there has been a recent trend in some states toward "carve-ins": combining financing for behavioral health services with the larger pool of Medicaid-covered services. Jonah Kushner (cohort '20) and Prof. Marcela Horvitz-Lennon examine the experiences of other states with carve-in financing to inform California's consideration of this type of funding.

Explore Pardee RAND student-authored research on Health and Health Care »

Faculty Mentors

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Recent Dissertations

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