Left: LBJ/Dell faculty member Dr. Abigail Aiken presents her research findings to Irish Parliament ahead of a historic referendum on abortion in 2017. Right: LBJ/Dell faculty member Dr. Michael Hole speaks at an Austin-area event as both a pediatrician and early childhood policy expert in 2019.
UT Austin now offering a dual degree in public affairs and medicine
Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin is focused on training what it calls "future physician leaders" — doctors who are as comfortable taking on systemic challenges in health as they are caring for individual patients. With that goal in mind, UT Austin will begin offering Dell Med students the opportunity to earn a dual degree in public affairs and medicine — a combination that's a rarity among medical schools — beginning in fall 2021. The interdisciplinary dual degree program will allow students to earn both a Master of Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs and a medical degree from Dell Med in approximately four years.
Public policy impacts health care at many levels. For example, globally, policymakers and health care professionals are working together to create policies that encourage innovations like value-based health care and to protect communities from the spread of COVID-19. And nationally, beginning on Nov. 10, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. The court is expected to release their opinion in 2021.
"The LBJ School is proud to partner with UT's Dell Medical School as we revolutionize the role of medicine in health care policy." —Angela Evans, dean of the LBJ School
This new degree will be the 18th dual degree program offered by the LBJ School. It is the seventh dual degree program offered by Dell Med as part of its Leading EDGE curriculum. Medical students are eligible to begin taking classes in Dell Med's signature third year, known as the Growth Year.
This dual degree program will prepare generations of policy and health care leaders to be effective in careers involving the design, development, evaluation and execution of local, state and federal health care policies.
"The LBJ School is proud to partner with UT's Dell Medical School as we revolutionize the role of medicine in health care policy," said Angela Evans, dean of the LBJ School. "I want to thank the LBJ School's assistant dean for academic strategies, Dr. Martin Luby, for his leadership in this joint venture and his unwavering commitment to realize this critical partnership. His efforts, alongside Susan Cox of the Dell Medical School, are creating research and learning environments that will tackle, head-on, some of the most difficult and compelling health challenges facing our communities and governments."
The LBJ School is accepting applications for Fall 2021. The Round I deadline is Dec. 15.