The Possibilities at TDI: A Dream Come True

My desire in coming to The Dartmouth Institute (TDI) was to gain the knowledge and skill set to ultimately become an effective health policy researcher and assist in the appropriate reform of U.S. health care. This desire has certainly come true; the opportunities at TDI to begin achieving your career goals are endless. I thought I'd relate one particular opportunity I had while studying here.

As MPH students, we are obviously required to complete a thesis. While the requirements are strict, there are various tracks you can pursue depending on your unique academic/career interests (e.g. Analysis of a Population Health (PH) Problem, PH Intervention Plan, PH Research Grant Proposal, etc.). Since I wanted to pursue a career in health policy research, I chose the grant proposal track and spent the last 6 months working on it. While not required, I wanted to ultimately submit it to the NIH for funding, and so I worked with two orthopaedic surgeon scientists and a biostatistician as my content experts to better ensure its success.

Long story short, after an intense last month of writing and editing according to their critiques, we just submitted it to the NIH last week! It was a very satisfying feeling. If funded, we will be getting $1 million over 2 years to study outcomes of total knee and hip replacement in the United States--the number one cost-driver for Medicare inpatient services. In the end, we hope to generate knowledge that will inform all stakeholders (the orthopaedic community, patients, and policy-makers) and significantly improve these outcomes, while decreasing cummulative costs by reducing the need for revisions (repeat procedures).

I can't wait to see the NIH's decision and hopefully begin working to literally fulfill the motto at TDI to generate "knowledge that informs change."