The Institute for Health System Evaluation (IHSE) advances the University at Albany’s mission for increased community engagement. The new Institute is designed to conduct objective research and analysis to help improve policy and decision making concerning the United States health system and to study various international models. The IHSE focuses on the issues that matter most to Americans and beyond, focusing on public health and the improvement of the health care system, the largest sector of the U.S. economy. The IHSE is a new consortium that creates a natural laboratory for research and evaluation of health system developments in partnership with colleges and universities, regional business, and national and international partners. This novel formal collaboration between academics and business enterprise in the regional health economy will allow for the IHSE and its partners to be more nimble in applying for increasingly competitive grants and contracts from public and private sources, since natural synergies exist between the members of the unit, as well as the fact that established teams are already connected for the translation of research into practice. The IHSE expects to turn a substantial net cash flow from the engagement in serving the needs of industry and population health.
The IHSE is active in research, teaching and service. Activities include: research in the production of scholarly output funded by grants and contracts at the state and federal levels as well as through industrial contracts; education in conducting short courses and serving as an internship and post-doctoral training ground for both practice and academic rotations and in developing programmatic offerings through the School of Public Health at the graduate level; and service in industry consultations and evaluations of system and firm level advances in health care in the northeastern region and beyond, and providing a venue for industry and academia to come together for discussions of current and future health care issues as they relate to the improvement of population health.
The IHSE provides knowledge to the health economy, and through comparative research, for the nation at large and internationally. It will disseminate its research findings as widely as possible to benefit the public good through scholarly output, policy briefings for state and local constituents, and numerous conference and outreach events that will serve scholars, practitioners and the community at large. Currently, the IHSE has grants and contracts from the New York State Department of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and SUNY System Administration.