Technology excites in its promise to help transform and improve lives. Yet we observe that this promise has not always translated into reality, particularly in the Global South.

Organized around key applications and case studies, this course examines the promises – and pitfalls – of technology for impact. It examines the ways in which entrepreneurs and practitioners harness technologies to solve key challenges, while also questioning how new technologies transform or reinforce dominant paradigms.

Advancements in awareness and understanding have led to greater equity and inclusion in society for people with disabilities. Developments such as the establishment of Disability Studies as an interdisciplinary field in the 1980’s and the introduction of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) in 1990 are key milestones in this journey. However, these achievements alone do not guarantee the extent of attitudinal and behavioral change needed within our communities and organizations to remove the barriers and prejudices that remain.

This course focuses on questions of mission and vision ("How does managed care support the triple aim of US healthcare: improving the patient experience, improving population health, and reducing per capita cost?”) and on questions of strategy and operations ("How can public health professionals successfully adopt and leverage managed care business models to improve affordable, sustainable access to high quality care?”).

The Realities of Managing Complex Health Systems course is designed to provide students with an up close perspective of how large health systems operate. Using real life case studies, expert insight, and relevant reading materials the course will outline the problems, issues, and possible solutions for essential areas of management, operations, and finance such as:

This course aims to improve your ability to effectively manage and lead health service organizations.  We examine a range of key challenges that managers must address to optimize organizational performance, including questions of mission, vision, and strategy ("What areas or activities should we be working in?") and questions of organizational design and operations ("How can we perform effectively in this area?").

In today’s healthcare environment, adapting to change is not enough. Healthcare executives and managers are tasked with leading change and driving results. This course will cover practical strategies leaders and emerging leaders can use to anticipate, plan, and respond to policy, regulatory, and practice changes in the industry.

Whether you are a founder or working for a founder, you are an innovator and an entrepreneur. The Making of a Healthcare Entrepreneur is the course for current and future health care innovators interested in learning how to exploit gaps and opportunities in the evolving healthcare industry and launch meaningful, valuable companies as measured by customers and investors. It provides innovators with the essential steps needed to take their idea from concept to reality.

All public and nonprofit organizations must assemble and report information on their performance. The need for performance measures goes beyond legal and regulatory requirements. To provide services effectively and efficiently, managers need information to make decisions. This course focuses on what performance measures are needed, how they should be created and what forms of communication are most effective.

The Wagner School Summer Institute brings together faculty and students from the United States and other parts of the world for an on-site exploration of international health policy and prospects in Geneva, Switzerland.

This course incorporates topics of planning and financial decision making as applied to health-care organizations. This course will cover two main topics:
-Financial analysis both as a proactive exercise and a tool for organizational control.
-Issues of budgeting, cost determination, pricing and rate setting in a healthcare environment.

This course provides the core microeconomic theories and concepts needed to understand health and health care issues in both the developed and developing world. It describes how the markets for health and health services are different from other goods, with a particular emphasis on the role of government and market failure. In addition it discusses the theoretical and empirical aspects of key health economics issues, including the demand for health and health services, supply side concerns, health insurance, the provision of public goods, and related topics.

The course incorporates topics of capital planning and other finance issues making as applied to health-care organizations. This course will cover three main topics:
-Public payer rate setting
-Understanding risk and the costs of capital in making financial decisions.
-Issues in working capital and investment management activities of healthcare organizations.