Harkness/Health Foundation Fellowships offers experienced practitioners a chance to work in the USA to study its health policy and to help advance UK policy.
The Harkness/Health Foundation Fellowship in Healthcare Policy and Practice encourages and supports healthcare practitioners from managerial and clinical backgrounds to participate in the Harkness Fellowship programme, run by The Commonwealth Fund of New York.
The programme offers Fellows the chance to work with leading US health policy experts to analyse an aspect of US health policy relevant to UK policy.
The Health Foundation has supported this successful Fellowship scheme since 2003.
From 2008, as a result of the Foundation’s strategic review, we will no longer be funding the Fellowships but will retain a partnership with The Commonwealth Fund to support Fellows before and after their time in the USA. All UK interested applicants are still eligible and strongly encouraged to apply for the 2009/10 Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy. They should contact The Commonwealth Fund directly for further information.
The Health Foundation remains highly committed to offering leadership development opportunities to healthcare professionals from a wide range of organisational and professional backgrounds. Our leadership programmes are constantly evolving and we will continue to seek out and support leaders who can help us improve patient care in the UK.
What the Fellowships offer
The Harkness/Health Foundation Fellowships in Healthcare Policy and Practice are aimed at experienced healthcare practitioners. They provide a unique opportunity to spend a year in the USA examining the US health system while working with leading health policy experts to conduct original research.
Fellows join the Harkness Fellowship programme offered by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation based in New York City. These prestigious Fellowships bring together talented health practitioners, policy-makers and researchers from the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Germany. Fellows become part of an international network dedicated to driving excellence and innovation in health policy and services.
After the Fellowship
Harkness Fellows have secured a number of high-profile positions after completing their Fellowships. For example, Claire Stebbing is on a year long, full time secondment at the Department of Health working with Sir Liam Donaldson, looking at policy analysis and development.
Derek FeeleyDirector of Healthcare Policy and Strategy, Scottish Executive Health Department Read full case study
“The fellowships provide a great opportunity to get behind the rhetoric of US and UK healthcare and explore how changes to policy could improve the quality of care for back in the UK.”
Claire StebbingSpecialist Registrar in Paediatrics, Barnet and Chase Farm Hospital“I’m now on secondment at the Department of Health working with Sir Liam Donaldson, looking at policy analysis and development. The fellowship gave me the tools, contacts and confidence to secure this position.”