2022 CHAS and Sciences Po Workshop at the Center in Paris

SciencesPo and Center for Health Administration Studies : Health Policy Innovation an Reform Workshop, 22 Sep 2022

On September 22-23, 2022, University of Chicago faculty to met with French researchers from Sciences Po, at the Center in Paris, to share their most recent and cutting edge work in a deliberately comparative and collaborative context toward the goal of knowledge growth and policy innovation. Originally planned as a workshop in Paris 2020, the COVID-19 global shutdown and pandemic delayed the event until Autumn 2022. Support for this workshop came from The College at the University of Chicago and the Center in Paris. The focus of the CHAS & Sciences Po Workshops on Health Policy Innovation and Reform is to bring together on a regular basis health policy researchers and scholars from the U.S. and France to share — in a comparative and collaborative context – their most recent work in areas central to understanding health innovation and reform across political contexts.

In this fourth workshop, of an ongoing series hosted alternately in Paris and Chicago, participants presented aspects of their work relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparisons between the United States and Europe, especially France, provided insight on similar patterns, parallels, and national specificities. Poor preparedness, lack of leadership, radicalization of public health debates, rapid mobilization of hospitals and health care professionals, exacerbation of health disparities, and vulnerability of nursing homes, among others, were discussed as being observed concomitantly in both regions. In parallel, the importance of state interventions, role of science in policy making, revaluation of local public health capacities, and social and racial inequalities, along with a huge economic, social, and even political tribute paid by populations, were discussed as well. This workshop’s unprecedented context shed light on existing health systems and social contexts and their management and inclusion in a wider society. There are sizeable potential gains in knowledge growth and policy innovation that can result from such a systematic, scientific exchange of ideas. Research and evaluation in both countries has contributed to reforms in health and social service policy. Additionally, several researchers are coordinating journal publications for workshop white papers and one team is presenting at an upcoming international social sciences conference.

This ongoing series of scientific exchanges was designed in 2016 to bring together on a regular basis health policy researchers and scholars from US and France. The health and social service sectors in both the US and France are dynamic and characterized by high levels of research and evaluation with potential to catalyze innovation and reform in health policy and service delivery. The process of translating emerging social science research and evaluation into effective policy and service delivery requires opportunities for analysis and exchange such as this Workshop was designed to provide.

Participants