The University of Utah's Governor Scott M. Matheson Center for Health Care Studies and the associated Governor Scott M. Matheson Presidential Endowed Chair in Health Policy and Management have a unique charge. First, the focus established by the endowment is upon education, particularly educating physicians in the skills of health care administration. The Center supports this role by facilitating faculty development and community connections broadly related to health care administration and policy. This is done through programs of teaching, research, and service. Second, the Center is positioned organizationally to act as a stimulus for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary efforts across the University of Utah’s academic colleges and centers. The Center’s purpose and organization are as follows.

• Purpose. The Center supports education, research, and community service that enable health care professionals (physicians, hospital administrators, nurses, public health officers, etc.) to better manage health care services. It seeks opportunities to build a mutual understanding of health policy matters from the perspectives of health care providers, policy makers, and patients. The Center gives special attention to building linkages between medicine, management, and other disciplines to help meet these basic purposes.

The Center has a broad concern for the effectiveness and efficiency of health services. Currently, it gives special attention to the relationships and conflicts between cost management and quality assurance, with particular interests in quality assessment, technology assessment, practice guidelines, and the ethical issues central to expansion of access, management of costs, and improvement of quality.

• Organization. The Center began full operations in January of 1988, funded by an endowment from the FHP (now the Archstone) Foundation and by supplemental support from the FHP/Archstone Foundation, the University of Utah, and grants and contracts. The Center is a unique academic unit, in that it reports directly to both the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Senior Vice President for Health Sciences. This assists the Center in linking the "lower campus" schools of Business and Social Work and colleges of Engineering, Law, Social and Behavioral Science, and Humanities with the "upper campus" School of Medicine and colleges of Nursing, Pharmacy, and Health. The Center itself operates on a modest budget, making most of its contribution through cooperative projects involving various colleges, departments, and institutes of the University of Utah.

Educational programs

• The Graduate Program in Health Services Administration enrolls about 30 students. This program is offered only in conjunction with one of a dozen masters degrees including business, public health, and public administration.

• Undergraduate and graduate courses in health policy are offered through the Political Science Department.

• A concentrated course for physician executives is jointly sponsored by the Matheson Center, the Business School, and the Medical School.

• Courses associated with the student editing of Utah's Health, An Annual Review are offered through the Political Science Department.