Dr. Adrienne Lapidos, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, is a faculty lead for online education with the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation (IHPI). IHPI is the nation’s largest university-based community of health services researchers, working together across diverse disciplines to study complex and timely health challenges that refuse simple definition or confinement within a single field of study. The Institute’s mission is to foster innovative, interdisciplinary research to inform policies and practices that advance the equity, quality, safety, and affordability of healthcare, and improve health for individuals, families, and communities.
The new online course that Dr. Lapidos spearheaded is called "Understanding and Improving the US Healthcare System." Originally developed by Dr. Matthew Davis in 2014, Dr. Lapidos' team has completely updated the 2024 course to include new topics such as behavioral health policy and health equity. The course is designed to provide U-M students from a variety of backgrounds with an engaging, practical, and interactive way to better understand the U.S. healthcare system. It has been updated for the 2024-2025 academic year with 29 new video interviews and lectures.
This 6-week course uses a mix of video-based lectures, interviews, online discussion forums, and virtual interprofessional small group activities to introduce learners to the main topics related to the historically complex U.S. healthcare system, including:
- Introduction to U.S. Healthcare
- U.S. Presidents & the Politics of Healthcare Reform
- Behavioral Health Policy and Services
- Cost, Quality, and Access to Care
- Health Equity
- Diabetes in U.S. Healthcare
As of today, over 431 students are expected to take the course, including all first-year medical students, all first-year dental students, all first-year pharmacy students, and public health students taking the course as a 1-credit elective.
"I am very proud of psychiatry representation in this course, including the following current and former psychiatry department faculty and staff: Polly Gipson-Allen, Donovan Maust, Dayna Leplatte-Ogini, and Justin Hodge." -Dr. Adrienne Lapidos
