Health policy refers to decisions, plans, and actions that aim to achieve specific health care goals within a society based on the definition of World Health Organization. According to this organization, health policy making is the agreement on health problems and goals which need to be addressed, and prioritizing and directing to acquiring them.  Health Policy Making, as one of the three important functions of stewardship, affects other functions and goals of health sector. There are different models and theories for health policy making which are appropriate for specific political situation and framework. To better understand policy making process and the effects of policies on health sector, an analytical tool should be used. There are different tools that can be used for analyzing health sectors policies prospectively and retrospectively. Learning them will help policy makers to make effective health policies.

In this course, at first, the concepts, theories and models of policy making and their use in health sector will be learned. Then, different models of policy analysis will be reviewed. Learning these models such as health sector control levers, policy making cycle, agenda setting, problem detection in health sector, health policy analysis framework, stakeholders’ analysis through different educational methods and participatory learning are the goals of this course.