Students are entering health services research and health policy at an important moment for the field. Decisions about research funding, access to evidence, and how evidence is used in health care are shaping not only the work happening today but also the field students will enter after graduation.
AcademyHealth is working alongside its members to defend that field and strengthen the role of evidence in health care decisions.
In the past year, AcademyHealth helped restore more than $55 million in stalled federal research grants, helped secure bipartisan FY26 appropriations language preserving AHRQ as an independent agency with an active grant program, and helped build the coalition credited with protecting the independence of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
We want students to be part of the community behind that work. That is why, beginning October 29, 2026, AcademyHealth Student membership will be available at no cost to full-time undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students.
Join a Community Working for the Future of the Field
Building a career in health services research and health policy starts long before graduation. Students are already contributing to research, asking important questions, learning from mentors, and beginning to determine where they can make an impact.
AcademyHealth gives students an opportunity to connect with a broader community working to strengthen the field, defend evidence, and advance its use in health care decisions. Removing Student membership dues lowers a barrier to joining that community and makes it easier for more students to begin participating now.
What Student Membership Includes
As an AcademyHealth Student member, you can:
- Automatically receive AcademyHealth’s Situation Report to stay informed about policy, funding, research, and other developments affecting the field.
- Build relationships across the field with researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and peers.
- Connect with the broader AcademyHealth community and the conversations shaping health and health care.
- Become part of a community defending evidence and working to strengthen the future of health services research and health policy.
Who Is Eligible?
Free AcademyHealth Student membership is available to full-time undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students.
Current Student members will remain active through their existing membership term. When it is time to renew, they will still need to complete the renewal process to keep their membership active. There will be no cost to renew.
Join the AcademyHealth Community
The future of health services research depends on the people entering the field today. We want more students to have the opportunity to connect with one another, learn from the broader field, and become part of a community working to defend evidence and advance its use in health care decisions.