Dissertation Spotlight

Students in the doctoral program in health services research may select a general health services research track or they may select an emphasis area in one of three areas: pharmaceutical health services research, organizational sociology, or health economics. We are proud of the successes of our students and congratulate their hard work.

  • Sarah Gordon, PhD candidate in Health Services Research and recently successfully defended her dissertation titled "Continuity of Health Insurance under the Affordable Care Act: Evidence from Public and Private Markets in Colorado and Utah." 

  • Alexandra Ellis, PhD Candidate in Health Services Research and 2018 Student Excellence in Public Health Impact Award winner recently successfully defended her dissertation titled "Emulators to Facilitate the Development and Analysis of Computationally Expensive Decision Analytic Models in Health

  • Megan Cole, PhD candidate in Health Services Research (HSR), recently successfully defended her dissertation, titled "The impact of Medicaid expansion on community health centers."

  • Michael Flores, MPH, PhD candidate in Health Services Research (HSR), recently successfully defended his dissertation, titled “Evaluation of Rhode Island's Health Home Initiative.”

  • Jessica Roydhouse, PhD candidate in Health Services Research (HSR), recently successfully defended her dissertation, titled "Improving patient-reported outcomes in cancer care: non-response and the role of proxies."

  • Ben Silver, PhD candidate in Health Services Research (HSR), recently successfully defended his dissertation, titled "Effects of Medicare Medical Review on Short-stay Inpatient Hospital Use, Costs, and Patient Outcomes."

  • Andrew Zullo, Phd candidate in Health Services Research, successfully defended his dissertation, titled "Use, Safety, and Effectiveness of Diabetes Medications in Older Nursing Home Residents."

  • Laura Keohane, PhD candidate in health services research, recently successfully defended her dissertation, titled “The Impact of Medicare Hospitalizations and Deductibles on Medicaid Enrollment.” Despite qualifying for Medicaid, many low-income Medicare beneficiaries do not enroll in the program.

  • Qijuan (Emily) Li, PhD candidate in Health Services Research (HSR), recently successfully defended her dissertation, titled "Impact of Care Quality and Coinsurance on End-stage Renal Disease Patients’ Disenrollment from Medicare Advantage.”

  • John McHugh, PhD candidate in health services research, successfully defended his dissertation, titled "The Impact of Hospital-Skilled Nursing Facility Partnerships on Rehospitalization Rates."

  • Marissa Meucci, PhD candidate in Health Services Research, recently successfully defended her dissertation, titled "The Effectiveness of Home Health Services and Modifications for Older Adults." 

  • Lawrence Were, PhD candidate in Health Services Research, recently successfully defended his dissertation, titled “The Impact of Health Insurance on Access and Utilization of Obstetric Health Services for Pregnant Women: Evidence from Kenya.”