The DBH is an innovative and interdisciplinary applied program designed to prepare masters degree-level professionals to become experts in the emerging field of integrated behavioral care.

Integrated care is the holistic treatment of both medical and behavioral conditions. When undetected and untreated, whether in primary care or other medical settings, the results are poor clinical outcomes and increased medical costs related to overuse of medical services. A key recommendation in health care reform is improved integration of medical and behavioral care in order to both improve health outcomes as well as decrease health care costs.

The doctoral curriculum is explicitly focused on graduating experts who can both speak the language of evidence-based clinical interventions and to perform cost savings and return on investment analyses that are in high demand in new models of accountable care delivery. Traditional doctoral training does not prepare clinicians or managers with the interdisciplinary knowledge required to meet these new demands in the health care marketplace. This program reflects a paradigm shift to a curriculum based on business entrepreneurship skills, such as business plans, marketing and returns on investment specific to health care; evidence-based behavioral interventions for primary care that are efficient and contribute to cost savings by reducing unnecessary medical care services and costs; health care systems policies, economics and finance that respond to emerging opportunities in health care reform; and medical literacy, to understand common medical conditions seen in primary care and consult effectively with the medical team.

The curriculum is unique in that it incorporates internship experiences in primary care or similar medical settings, and it integrates clinical and professional affiliated faculty as well as faculty associates who are experts and are directly employed in health care environments in the area that they are teaching. It is a flexible, online degree program that enables students to select a program of study ranging from part-time to full-time attendance, and it is available through ASU Online as a distance-learning program. The program offers either a clinical track for licensed clinicians or a management track for health care managers and leaders, and it replaces the dissertation with a culminating research project that combines an applied research study with a business plan.

Internship experiences are arranged with local site liaisons, and students meet in small groups with a doctoral consultant who leads case reviews and studies. Rural health and experiences with disadvantaged and multicultural populations are encouraged.

Graduates of the program will lead a societal transformation by increasing access to behavioral care, integrating behavioral providers into medical teams, improving patient outcomes and satisfaction, and decreasing cost of care.