University of Pittsburgh Health Policy and Management

The Council of the Three Rivers American Indian Center (COTRIAC) is one of Pennsylvania's largest recipients of Head Start and Early Head Start funding. MPH student Natalie Pruitt joined COTRIAC through Pitt Public Health’s Bridging the Gaps internship program. In eight weeks, Pruitt and another PPH student learned the ins and outs of the program, which serves more than 560 children aged 0-3 across Allegheny, Westmoreland and Philadelphia Counties and developed a plan and program to get information to families they might not find elsewhere due to p olicy changes and the removal of previously public information from publicly funded websites, such as the CDC and county and state health departments, which led leaders to identify the need for easily accessible health information and resources. (Credit: Natalie Pruitt) Natalie Pruitt (right) presents the  Family Health Education Toolkit “My co-intern and I created the Family Health Education Toolkit: Practical, Plain-Language guida...

While many HPM students went to any number of hospitals across western Pennsylvania for their residencies, Michaela Frey reported to work in one of the iconic buildings that dominate Pittsburgh’s skyline – Fifth Avenue Place – better known as the Highmark Building. Frey was the first HPM student to take a residency with Allegheny Health Network’s Clinically Integrated Network (CIN) Physician Partners of Western Pennsylvania (PPWPA), working between operations and post-acute care under PPWPA operations director Alex Brennsteiner. “It is a corporate position, which has been an interesting perspective to develop, especially compared to most of my classmates whose residencies are in hospitals,” said Frey. Before I started, I had never even heard of a CIN or ACO, so every day was like drinking from a firehose.” Left: Michael Frey stands by an AHN LifeFlight helicopter. Right: Frey presents to AHN executives. While there was a lot to learn, Frey says everyone she worked with was quick to...

On August 26, Women’s Equality Day, Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) and members of his administration used the day to highlight the importance of preventive screenings and the services available to Pennsylvania’s women through their insurance. (Credit: Adobe Stock) A 2025 survey by the Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID) found that 31 percent of Pennsylvania’s women had little to no awareness of the preventive services available to them under the Affordable Care Act. In response, the PID, along with the state departments of Health and Human Services, has launched a statewide tour to raise awareness about the life-saving care available at no cost. Lydia Roberts “We know that understanding what is available through your insurance can be the first step toward taking charge of your health,” said Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Michael Humphreys. First-year HPM student Lydia Roberts, who is taking part in the 4+1 accelerated degree program, interned with PID consumer services div...

In 2016, Allegheny County saw 734 overdose deaths, with 602 from opioids. Since then, the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) has used CDC grants for addiction treatment and prevention initiatives, including harm reduction and education efforts. Second-year MPH student Sabina Shah spent the summer with ACHD’s Overdose Prevention Team assessing and updating its materials and getting out into the community to connect people with resources the department offers. In addition to updating educational materials and brochures, Shah collected community feedback to help tailor ACHD’s programs and initiatives to serve better the communities they serve. Sabina Shah presents her research poster at the Pittsburgh Summer Institute showcase (Credit: Tina Hershey) “I worked pop-up events in several communities across the country where we would distribute overdose prevention and harm reduction supplies like Naloxone, drug test strips, CPR face shield masks and other necessities,” she said. ...

UPMC sees more than 375,000 inpatient admissions to its 40 hospitals every year; if each patient is visited by the recommended two to three people, that adds up to a lot of people passing through the doors each day. An administrative resident at UPMC Magee-Women’s Hospital and second-year MHA student Katie Cooke has taken the lead on a project to make the visitor experience standard across the entire system. Visitors sign in at UPMC Hamot Hospital (Credit: Katie Cooke) Working in Magee’s operations department, Cooke says she’s gotten hands-on experience in several initiatives in both the hospital and across the UPMC system. “This experience has provided broad exposure to healthcare operations while also allowing me to take ownership of several meaningful projects,” she said. Perhaps the biggest project is the visitor management initiative, which implements a standardized process to enhance safety and operational efficiency. The project introduced a new approach to verifying visit...

Nearly a million venous thromboembolisms (VTE) – a condition where blood clots form in the veins – happen in the U.S. each year. VTE is most common among older people but can occur at any age. 30 to 70 percent of all VTE events occur during hospitalizations and in the three months immediately after discharge . Second-year MHA student Abby Serakowski is completing an extended residency with Allegheny Health Network’s (AHN) Executive Nursing team, giving her first-hand experience to both the clinical and administrative sides of nursing leadership. AHN's Executive Nursing Team at an event (Credit: Abby Serakowski) “Much of my work has focused on project management and supporting quality/patient safety initiatives in areas such as wound care and VTE prevention,” said Serakowski. With wound care, she’s coordinated workgroups exploring digital care, wound treatment associate standardizations and expansion, growing wound ostomy and continence nursing and developing academic partnersh...

The Health on the Hilltop Fair offered services and resources to the local community. (Credit: Maria Pardo) Health care access and affordability are among the biggest barriers facing Americans today. More than a third (36%) report putting off care in the past 12 months because of cost, and 43% say they’ve delayed filling prescriptions because of cost. Second-year MPH student Maria Pardo was originally hired as additional support at Hilltop Pharmacy in Pittsburgh’s Allentown neighborhood. Still, when her boss, pharmacy owner Alex Rothey, PharmD (PHARM ’18), learned she was pursuing her MPH, the conversation turned to how they could help the community.  “We wanted to do this health fair to allow the community to gain access to resources that they might not have easy access to,” said Pardo.  “We also wanted to introduce people to local clinics and organizations that specialize in serving medically underserved populations.”  The fair featured on-site health screenings and res...

Patient safety is as much a concern for many health care professionals as curing medical ills. In its annual Patient Safety Fellowship , the Jewish Healthcare Foundation posed the question: “What if safety was baked into the care model to prevent issues from happening in the first place?” JHF Patient Safety Fellows at a session. (Courtesy: Jewish Health Foundation) HPM MPH student Katie Walters was among the 23 emerging health care professionals taking part in the 9-week course. “In each session, we heard from patient safety experts across the country,” she said. “For most of the sessions, we reviewed the 'Safe by Design' white paper and the recommendations provided by the Coalition for Advancing Safer Healthcare (CASH).” Sessions involved participants working in groups to practice concepts covered in the paper and a site visit to the WISER Institute to see how education and simulation can be used to improve safety in every step of care. Teams were also tasked with showin...