Physicians-in-Training
In addition to comprehensive clinical training, Penn provides physicians-in-training the opportunity to be part of a larger health policy and health services research community. Whether you are interested in formal research training and degrees after residency, or just want to keep up on the health policy issues that affect clinical practice, Penn makes it easy for you to see the bigger picture.
The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) is Penn’s center for these activities. LDI was established more than 45 years ago and links Penn’s schools of Medicine (Perelman), Nursing, Business (Wharton), Communication (Annenberg), Dental Medicine, Law, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia toward the common mission of understanding the organization, delivery, management, and financing of health care, and the social forces that shape health.
LDI supports an unusually dynamic “academic community” in health services and health policy research—linking about 200 scholars across the 12 schools at Penn, bringing them together for weekly seminars with outside speakers, distributing about $150,000 in pilot funds annually to support junior faculty, and supporting the development of proposals that span disciplinary boundaries. The result is a rich and diverse learning environment for clinical trainees and fellows.
Clinical trainees are welcome and encouraged to join this community. They can find colleagues in, and synergies with, other training programs LDI hosts and supports, such as:
- An AHRQ-funded T32 program that supports the Wharton doctoral program in Health Care Management and the School of Medicine’s post-doctoral masters program in Health Policy Research
- The RWJF Clinical Scholars Program
- The RWJF Health & Society Scholars Program
- The Wharton MBA in Health Care Management
- VA post-doctoral program in health services research
Through LDI, you can:
- Network with leading scholars and policymakers who visit LDI as guests each week. Individual and group meetings with these speakers can be arranged. For example, in 2012, you could have discussed health care reform with Paul Starr of Princeton, or explored the potential of information technology to improve patient care with then-Chief Technology Officer Todd Park of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
- Work with LDI faculty to conduct health services research in an area of interest to you.
- In collaboration with an LDI Senior Fellow, apply for a pilot project grant. Priority is given to projects from junior faculty, and those with a multidisciplinary perspective.
