The fellowship experience is substantially enriched by program seminars and other activities organized by the Fund during the year.
- Orientation for New Fellows. Held at The Commonwealth Fund in New York City, the four-day orientation features an in-depth seminar on the U.S. health care system and current health policy issues, as well as site visits to exemplar health care provider organizations.
- Qualitative Research Methodology Workshop. A two-day workshop on effectively conducting qualitative research, which covers topics such as designing a qualitative study, developing a qualitative instrument, addressing bias and sampling issues, and verifying conclusions.
- International Symposium on Health Care Policy. The Commonwealth Fund's Annual International Symposium, held in Washington, D.C., brings together Health Ministers and leading health policy-thinkers from Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The meeting is a unique, invitation-only policy forum that fosters high level cross-national exchange and showcases international innovations.
- Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Meeting: Fellows spend a day in Boston at the world-renowned IHI, hearing firsthand from IHI staff about pioneering work in health care quality and safety, and networking with IHI quality fellows.
- Washington Policy Briefing. A four-day briefing held on Capitol Hill with key stakeholders—including members of Congress and senior government officials, think tank researchers, political strategists for the Republican and Democratic parties, lobbyists, and prominent journalists—to highlight the U.S. political process and current issues on the health and social policy agenda.
- Innovations in Health Care - California Site Visits: Fellows have the opportunity to visit California to understand health care at the state level through meetings at the California Health Insurance Exchange and with the California Secretary of Health, as well as a visit to Kaiser Permanente, a leading integrated delivery system. Fellows also travel to Silicon Valley to meet health care entrepreneurs and hear first-hand from "big data" powerhouses including Google.
- Leadership Seminar Series. Fellows participate in a series of dynamic roundtable exchanges that examine the core concepts of leadership. The seminars provide an opportunity to learn from the real-world experience of invited guest speakers who are U.S. health care leaders drawn from government, politics, health care organizations, and academia.
- Final Reporting Seminar. Fellows present project findings to the Fund and leading health policy experts.
- AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting. Fellows attend the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting, an event that brings together more than 2,000 academic health services researchers, policymakers, and industry decision-makers for discussion of policy issues and new research findings. Fellows are encouraged to submit abstracts of their project findings for inclusion in the AcademyHealth program.