Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute

The Department of Population Medicine (DPM) in the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute is a research and teaching collaboration between Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Harvard Medical School. The Department’s mission is to improve health care delivery and population health through research and education, in partnership with health plans, delivery systems, and public health agencies. DPM’s mission and activities are highly consonant with the National Academy of Medicine’s advocacy for a national Learning Health System – one that incorporates evidence-based practices into routine care, captures new knowledge as part of the ongoing delivery of care, and then applies new knowledge in a timely manner. 
The Department uses its unique position within both a medical school and a health plan to conduct research that seeks to identify effective interventions and systems of care that can improve health care delivery, inform and enhance prevention efforts, evaluate and inform health care policy, and contribute to public health. DPM's research spans many axes: from prenatal care to palliative care; from primary care clinics to hospitals; and from preventive services to acute care to chronic illness management. Research faculty and staff are organized into research clusters; faculty have ties to one or more clusters based on interests and expertise. Our primary areas of concentration include:
• Comparative effectiveness research
• Delivery systems-based research
• Prevention research
• Policy research
• Surveillance and public health research