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.

The goal of this course is to prepare you for the challenges and organization transformation required in a value-based payment world. Managers will need not only an understanding of the total patient view, care integration and population risk management techniques required to meet new reimbursement requirements, but the change management issues and the IT/data management infrastructure and reporting environment required for success.

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.

This course explores the legal, policy and ethical issues encountered by health care professionals in the continuously evolving health care system. Topics will include government regulation of health care providers, patient consent to and refusal of treatment, human reproduction issues, privacy and confidentiality, tax-exemption, antitrust, fraud and abuse, mental health issues and health information management. Students will gain the ability to analyze legal and ethical health care resources by engaging in interactive discussions and informative research. 

This course is designed to study the essential role of human resources management within healthcare organizations. It is required for health management students and recommended for health policy and finance students. In order to meet the challenges of the marketplace, organizations will need to improve the quality of the services they provide; streamline their clinical delivery and support systems, and transform their human resources management accordingly.

This course will explore the role of ethics in management leadership and organization success in today’s health care environment. Learning objectives include: