Scope document
A written brief defining the contested question, the stakeholders involved, and the five angles each team will cover over the cycle.
Internal document
THE 8-WEEK CYCLE
From a contested question to a published policy brief.
HEPS runs in structured 8-week cycles. Here’s exactly what happens — who does what, when, and what you walk away with.
HOW IT RUNS
How HEPS Works
HEPS runs in 8-week cycles. Each cycle begins with the executive team selecting a contested policy question at the intersection of healthcare, law, and ethics — something that affects real people and doesn’t have an obvious answer.
Members are placed into small teams by angle: legal, medical, ethical, economic, or community-impact. Every team contributes a section to a shared policy brief. Weeks 1–2 are onboarding — workshops on reading studies, drafting briefs, and arguing with evidence. Weeks 3–6 are deep research and drafting, with weekly reviews from the advisory board. Week 7 is public — debates, campaigns, social media, community events. Week 8 is submission: the finished brief goes to decision-makers and into the HEPS public archive.
Over the course of a year, a HEPS chapter produces several polished policy briefs, a cohort of students who have practiced the craft of policy writing at a professional level, and a visible body of public work that communities and officials can point to.
FULL PHASE CYCLES
One cycle, five phases, eight weeks
Every HEPS cycle follows the same shape. Members join, pick up an angle, produce a section of the brief, debate it in public, and ship it to decision-makers — on a fixed 8-week rhythm.
Week 0
Topic selection
Weeks 1–2
Onboarding
Weeks 3–6
Research & drafting
Week 7
Public debate
Week 8
Submission
PHASES
Every phase, in full detail
Five phases, stacked end-to-end. Each one has a clear purpose, a set of tags for the skills practiced, and a deliverable that feeds the next.
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PHASE 1 — WEEK 0 — TOPIC SELECTION
Choosing the question
Before the cycle formally begins, the executive team meets to select a policy issue at the intersection of healthcare, law, and ethics. We look for questions that are genuinely contested — where smart, serious people disagree — and that affect real populations. Recent candidate areas have included drug-pricing transparency, pediatric mental-health access, end-of-life care standards, and the ethics of algorithmic triage.
Healthcare Law Ethics Scoping -
PHASE 2 — WEEKS 1–2 — ONBOARDING & TRAINING
Learning to think like a policy analyst
The first two weeks are dedicated to training. Members are assigned to teams by angle and begin a structured curriculum: how to read a peer-reviewed study without getting lost, how to tell a primary source from a talking point, how to write a policy brief that a busy official will actually finish, and how to argue a position without abandoning the evidence.
Policy writing Debate skills Research methods Citation standards -
PHASE 3 — WEEKS 3–6 — DEEP RESEARCH & DRAFTING
Building the case, section by section
Weeks 3 through 6 are the core of the cycle. Each team takes its assigned angle and produces a section of the shared brief. Teams meet internally twice a week, present progress to the wider club once a week, and rotate drafts through the advisory board for targeted feedback. Drafts go through at least three rounds of revision before they’re merged.
Team research Weekly check-ins Draft review Advisory feedback -
PHASE 4 — WEEK 7 — PUBLIC DEBATE & CAMPAIGNS
Taking the work into the world
Week 7 is where research becomes public. Teams host a structured debate — open to students, families, and community members — where each angle gets the chance to make its case. Alongside the debate, members produce an awareness campaign: social posts, short explainers, op-ed pitches, and community outreach events.
Public debate Awareness campaign Community outreach Social media -
PHASE 5 — WEEK 8 — POLICY BRIEF SUBMISSION
Handing the work to people who can act on it
In the final week, the advisory board conducts a final review. The brief is polished, formatted, and sent directly to the decision-makers relevant to the issue — legislators, hospital boards, regulators, school districts, or nonprofit leadership — then published in the HEPS public archive where anyone can read it.
Final review Submission Public archive
DELIVERABLES
What each cycle produces
Every phase ends with something concrete — a document, an event, a public artifact. Nothing stays in the drafts folder.
Practice brief & debate
Every member completes a short practice brief and participates in a debate exercise before deep research begins — so the skills are calibrated before the work starts.
Training artifactFull draft brief
By the end of week 6, all five team sections are merged into a complete, internally-reviewed draft of the policy brief, ready for public pressure-testing.
Draft documentPublic debate event
A structured, open debate where each team defends its angle in front of students, families, and community members — with the audience’s feedback recorded.
Live eventAwareness campaign
A short media campaign — social posts, explainers, op-ed pitches, and outreach events — that makes the issue legible to people who aren’t policy specialists.
Campaign packagePublished policy brief
The finished brief is submitted directly to the decision-makers who can act on it and added to the HEPS public archive, where anyone can read and cite it.
Published & submitted