Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health creates Division of Health Services Policy and Practice

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health in the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions (SPHHP) has developed a new intradepartmental division in Health Services Policy and Practice.

The division will be headed by Arthur Michalek, PhD, professor of epidemiology and environmental health, who previously served as senior vice president at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and dean of the RPCI Graduate Division at UB. He also recently led the doctoral program in health administration at D’Youville College.

The division will focus on education, teaching and community engagement and direct the school’s master’s degree program in health services administration. That degree program is open to graduate students who want to study and conduct fieldwork in the health administration field and offers opportunities for students interested in health services research.

Michalek says, “The new division has a strong foundation here and recognizes the contributions of our faculty to this field. It will provide a home to a community of scholars within the broader university who want to collaborate on investigational and applied research initiatives.

“As a division in a school of public health,” Michalek says, “we are concerned with bringing the best policies and practices to bear in the field of public health services and administration. We aim to develop administrators who are excellent critical thinkers and we promote and support the practice of evidence-based medicine and evidence-based delivery policies and practices.

“Today, it is essential that our students learn how to operate health services for diverse populations and in different settings, as well, particularly given the fact that the Affordable Care Act has made health care available to previously unserved groups,” he says.

Michalek says that to do this, health service graduates must have the required depth and breadth of knowledge and the skill set necessary to analyze and evaluate critical information.

He says, “Our students acquire those skills and develop knowledge in all the core public health fields including epidemiology, environmental health, health behavior and biostatistics, and so are prepared to make significant contributions to the health of different populations.”